Trial By Dying Will Flame
by DarkScytheQueen
Summary: Post-Ring Battle, Pre-TYL. The Trial By Dying Will Flame is an induction ritual to bestow upon the next Vongola Boss the one legacy of Don Giotto Vongola: the ability to ignite their flame at will. But, there is only one man able to conduct it. No Yaoi.
1. Preparation

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR.**

**This is my first attempt at deviating from YGO, therefore please forgive me if the story is lackluster. This is my inspiration after seeing the multitudes of ridiculous (but in no way unappealing) pairings about the characters of **_**Katekyo Hitman Reborn**_** and the borderline insulting use of one of my favorite characters.**

**I may be a beginner in the fandom, but rest assured this is probably an original work, as I've done with all of my YGO works. And I shall give this equal treatment with my YGO works, namely only Canon romance, straight characters, and minimal OOC-ness.**

**This story is set post-Ring Battle, Pre-Millifiore. There will not be a lot of spoilers, but I will use the information revealed in Episode 86, so don't try and memorize this story if you haven't watched. **

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter I:**

_**Preparations**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

_Vongola HQ, Italy_

Although being a Mafia Boss required you to protect and serve your Family, there were times that he really wanted to leave them all behind and run away.

Don Timoteo raised his head from behind his large plush armchair, looked up at the high, gem-studded dome of his room and let out an exhausted breath. He was _just _discharged from the hospital and _already _he dived into the problem of damage control for all the mess that the Varia made with the Ring Battles. It literally took _everything _to convince the Vendicare agents not to toss them into prison for all eternity. Yet, sparing them from that horrible fate, he _personally _made sure that those of the Varia would get befitting, but not deadly, punishments.

He stood from his armchair and trodded over to his luxourious four-poster bed, unceremoniously collapsing into the plush goose-down covers. '_All that work_...' He thought tiredly. '_I really __**am **__getting too old for this job._'

That thought had reminded him of the doctor's warning before he was discharged.

"_Forgive me for saying this Don Vongola Nono, but I must strictly request that you avoid battles like what happened in the 'Cradle Incident' and the Ring Battle. Any more strenuous battles like that and I'm afraid you might become bedridden..._"

Heeding the doctor's words. Don Timoteo had stayed at home ever since being discharged, but it only _just _helped his barely peaking stress level. "It's times like this that I am glad young Tsunayoshi would succeed me." He thought aloud, twisting a small strand of his moustache as he lay on his bed, uncharacteristically lazy for the 9th Don of the Vongola Family.

Then, all of a sudden, Don Timoteo sat back up, the hairs on the back of his head standing on end. The Vongola Hyper Intuition began to activate, telling him that something was amiss in his room.

"Who's there?" Timoteo whispered into the darkness, hurriedly grasping his trusted scepter before igniting its top with his Dying Will Flame.

As the words left his mouth, the room began to darken still, until not even the radiant moonlight, nor the flame on top of his scepter could pierce the darkness.

_**"Timoteo..." **_A voice whispered from the darkness, as faint as the night breeze. _**"Timoteo..."**_

The 9th Don's Hyper Intuition began to ease, not sensing hostile presences in the increasingly darkening room. Timoteo's grip on his scepter eased as well, and the scepter was now used as a torch, illuminating his surrounding area.

_**"Do not fear me, Timoteo."**_

There, within the darkness, a bright orange light ignited, sending the darkness further away. This light became brighter, and as it intensified, it gained detail, form, and appearance. Seeing what the light was, Don Timoteo extinguished the flame on his scepter and relaxed his aged muscles, letting out a sigh.

"You scare me when you do that." He replied, somewhat annoyed. His small smile ruffled his moustache a little, as he looked into the light. The orange light was from a small, floating flame, a Dying Will Flame to be precise, hovering in front of him.

_**"Forgive me for alarming you." **_The voice chimed, in the direction of the floating Flame. _**"But I must speak with you this instant."**_

Don Timoteo stood up. "What is the cause for this ugency?" He asked the Flame, bowing a little as a sign of respect.

_**"I must inquire about the young Decimo."**_

"Tsunayoshi? He has just gained the Sky Vongola Ring in the Ring Battle. It was grueling, but he was able to surpass Xanxus and his Flame of Rage by using a customized version of the _Zero-Point Breakthrough_. Tsunayoshi is now reccuperating in Namimori, Japan."

The Dying Will Flame, which was up until now bobbing up and down in place slightly, seemed to freeze in midair. The Flame then intensified, sending off embers into the surrounding space.

_**"The Zero-Point Breakthrough?" **_The Flame retorted in a huff._** " Surely you jest. No soul in my memory could replicate the Zero-Point Breakthrough at that young an age." **_

"There is no gain from deceiving you." Timoteo replied, again bowing. "Young Tsunayoshi was able to replicate, albeit imperfectly, the Zero-Point Breakthrough, and even more so, created his own version of it, _Custom_."

The Flame resumed its bobbing motion, but intensified even more. Don Timoteo inched further away from the flame, almost sweating from the heat radiating from the floating Will-o-Wisp.

_**"Can he ignite his Flame yet?" **_The Flame asked, its tone suggesting rising excitement and anticipation.

"He cannot ignite it on his own. He requires external ignition via the Dying Will Bullet."

At Timoteo's reply, the Flame's intensity lessened, yet the bobbing motion became more obvious.

"Forgive me for disappointing you." Timoteo apologised, bowing solemnly whilst following the flame's motions with his coal-black eyes.

Silence ruled the room as the Dying Will-o-Wisp continued to bob up and down. slowly the Flame moved to the left, then moved to the right, as if it was pacing. After a few moments of this, the Flame stopped right in front of Timoteo, and intensified again.

_**"Timoteo..."**_ The Flame began, its tone radiating utmost seriousness._** "... if the Decimo can achieve what no one else can achieve, I believe it is only right that I conduct the Ignition Ritual as soon as possible."**_

At the suggestion, Timoteo jerked back in surprise. "But...Tsunayoshi is only a young boy, for him to undergo that ritual now--!"

Before Don Timoteo could finish, the Flame began to flicker, similar to a flame readying to use the _Zero-Point Breakthrough_.

_**"The Decimo is the one I have been waiting for, Timoteo." **_The Flame said, its tone final. _**"I will not withdraw my decision."**_

Don Timoteo bowed his head in apology. "As you command, _Capo Di Tutti Capi." _**(1)**

**o.O.o.O.o**

_Namimori, Japan_

It was daybreak in Namimori, and in the Sawada household, only one form was completely awake.

Contrary to popular belief, Reborn was not the type of person who perpectually spent every waking moment of the day thinking of ways to 'train' his young student, Tsunayoshi 'Tsuna' Sawada. No, even though he was a hard-trained Hitman dedicated to his missions, there were times when even he needed to stop and smell the roses.

Take now for instance. There he was, sitting on the windowsill, watching the sunrise, a cup of coffee in his hand and Leon, his Chameleon pet and 'Partner', relaxing on his fedora. He was quite glad that he had to wake up Tsuna every morning. Since he always woke up at daybreak, he had a few precious moments to be by himself before the usual routine of chaos began.

'_Hmm..._' Reborn throught, downing a sip. '_Now I know what the Vongola Primo was thinking when he retired here. The sunrise is beautiful, the towns are peaceful, perfect for getting away from something._

The infant Hitman downed another sip as Leon peeked out from the brim of his fedora. "What is it, Leon?"

The lizard blinked before it turned into a cell phone, which promptly afterwards began to ring before flying to Reborn's hand.

It didn't take long for reborn to answer the phone. '_That's strange...usually I get my missions by regular phone. Only Timoteo and Iemitsu have Leon's number._'

"_Ciaossu._" Reborn greeted in his usual manner.

"_Reborn. I have an urgent mission for you and young Tsunayoshi." _The other person on the phone stated sternly.

"Timoteo? You've just been released, haven't you? What's wrong?"

"_You needn't worry, I'm not in any harm...but I need Tsunayoshi to come to Italy within the next week."_

"So sudden? Tsuna's still recovering..."

"_I know, and I wish not to trouble young Tsunayoshi, but please understand...this is the order of the __**Capo Di Tutti Capi.**__"_

Reborn paused, calmly downing the last of his coffee. If you looked hard enough, you could see worry in the infant's pure black eyes.

"What does he command?"

"_He wishes to conduct the Ignition Ritual on Tsunayoshi...immediately."_

"So early?"

"_That is what I told him. But as you know..._"

"The word of the _Capo Di Tutti Capi_ is final."

"_I shall await your arrival, Reborn. Oh, and feel free to invite Tsunayoshi's guardians. They have full access of the Vongola estate upon their arrival."_

"I understand."

Reborn ended the call and looked back to Tsuna, who was fast asleep, hugging his pillow with a smile on his face. '_He must be dreaming of Kyoko again..._'

Reborn snapped his fingers and Leon began to transform into a large green hammer.

"Wake up, _Dame_-Tsuna." Reborn called in a monotone, raising the Leon-Hammer. "You're being called by the _Capo Di Tutti Capi,_ andMafia Law states that '_Appointments must absolutely be respected_'.

'_Even though that appointment could and would change your life forever...' _He added in his thoughts.

**o.O.o.O.o**

**(1) **_**Capo Di Tutti Capi: **__Italian.___Transliterated: "The Boss of all Bosses"

**Enjoy your reading and feel free to correct any errors but try to be civil.**


	2. Premeditation

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR**

**It's good to see that I've gotten good reception for this. Very well, let us continue. **

**Ahh, before I forget, in this story, Gokudera does not smoke. I know he does in the manga, but I really don't want to picture him with a deathstick...**

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter 2:**

_**Premeditation**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

'_I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe this is happening...'_

That thought ricocheted around Tsuna's mind like a very elastic rubber ball. There he was, in the front walkway of a Romanesque Church, dressed in a prime white tuxedo, with Kyoko (he could actually see her face this time, it really _was _Kyoko) in the most elegant wedding dress imaginable, by his side, holding onto his arm. In the church itself, among the people, Haru was weeping with joy, dressed in a large dove costume, bouncing around.

"_Kyoko!_" She yelled, flapping her paper mache wings around. "Please be happy with Tsuna for me!"

Next to her, looking very annoyed, Gokudera looked like he was ready to blow like one of his dynamite sticks, but fought the urge down and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Congratulations, _Juudaime_!" He called, a wide grin on his usually thin lips.

In the pew behind them, Yamamoto was waving his arm at Tsuna. "Congrats, Tsuna! And remember: If your kids want to learn baseball, you know who to call!"

"_Oi!_" Ryohei called out in his usual bellow, forcing Yamamoto, who was seated next to him, to cover his ears. "_Take care of Kyoko to the extreme for me!_"

Next to the altar, leaning against a large pillar, Hibari was staying as far away from anyone as he can, his eyebrow twitching dangerously. "This is why I hate crowds..." He mumbled, holding up the microphone in his hand over his head where his plump pet canary, fondly named 'Hibird' by everyone else, began chirping _Here comes the Bride._

The audience watched on as Kyoko and Tsuna began walking down the aisle, hand in hand. Tsuna, beaming with joy, fondly looked at Kyoko, who smiled back at him.

Hearing a very familiar yelp at his feet, Tsuna tore his eyes from Kyoko's veiled face and gazed further down the aisle, where I-Pin and Lambo were chasing each other around, leaving behind white rose petals scattered all over the red carpet.

"The petals look amazing, don't they, Tsuna?" Kyoko whispered, flashing him her famous smile. On the receiving end, Tsuna's face flushed red. '_It's not a trick, it really is Kyoko!_'

They made it to the altar, where a distinctly short priest made his way on top -- not behind, _on top _-- of the altar. Tsuna's smile immediately vanished at the sight of the priest. "R-r-Reborn?!"

Sure enough, large coal-black eyes looked up at him. "Don't worry Tsuna, I won't do anything to upset this day." He assured him. "Besides, it was Don Timoteo's orders." He pointed to the audience, directing Tsuna's gaze to the front pew. Round, amber eyes widened when Tsuna saw not only Don Timoteo, but also his father, Iemitsu, his mother, Nana, Bianchi, Dino, and just about all the other Mafia members he knew seated on his side of the church, for once not looking conspicuous in their black tuxedoes.

"I'm proud of you, son." Iemitsu declared, beaming, comforting a weeping Nana beside him. "We both are, my little Tuna fish!" Nana smiled, wiping a tear from her eye.

Dino snorted at the mention of 'Tuna Fish'. "_Tuna Fish_?" He asked with a snigger.

"_Okaa-san!_" Tsuna blanched at the old baby name his mother used when he was a toddler.

A coughing sound diverted all attention to Reborn again, as Leon, who was perched on the infant hitman's shoulder, transformed into a green Bible.

"Ahem..._We are gathered here today, to unite these two young loves, Sawada Tsunayoshi and Sasagawa Kyoko, in Holy Matrimony. This joyous occasion is hereby approved by the divine will of--_"

"_**Get on with it to the extreme!**_" Ryohei screamed in the background, earning him a mass '_ssssh_' by his pew mates.

Rolling his eyes, Reborn flipped through one or two pages ahead. "Hibird, the rings if you please."

On cue, the small round bird flew into view and hovered in front of Kyoko, chirping happily. Cupping her hands to let the canary land, she noticed that as soon as Hibird landed, it stuck its leg out to reveal the diamond ring around it.

"Aww, it's so cute..." Kyoko giggled, removing the ring and letting Hibird fly off again, this time hovering in front of Tsuna.

Mimicing Kyoko, Tsuna held out a hand to receive the plump bird. But as Hibird stuck out its other leg, the bottom of Tsuna's stomach dropped.

Hibird was presenting him the Sky Vongola Ring.

"Tsuna..." Kyoko piqued, noticing the ring. "Is that..."

"It's nothing, really..." Tsuna stammered, hurriedly taking the ring of Hibird's leg and hiding it. Kyoko, however grabbed the hand holding the said ring with a grip that definitely came from her brother.

"Don't lie to me." Kyoko warned, tightening her grip on Tsuna's wrist, making him open it and drop the ring onto her awaiting hand "This is a Vongola Ring isn't it!?"

Tsuna froze in shock. "K-k-Kyoko...how did you know...?"

Still holding the Sky Vongola Ring and Tsuna's wrist, Kyoko knelt down, grabbed the hem of her wedding dress, and pulled it up, revealing a hip-strapped gun holster, and a badge.

"Because, ever since I was little, I either wanted to be a ballerina or a policewoman." She said, taking out the gun and pointing it at Tsuna's head. "Guess which one I chose?"

She looked up. "_All squads, mobilize now! The entire Vongola Mafia Alliance is in this church!"_

As if something out of a police movie, scores of SWAT team members rappeled down from the high ceiling, each soldier armed with handguns, grenades, and whatever crowd control weapons they had at their disposal. Civilians and Mafiosi alike looked on with stunned looks on their faces, the latter helpless bacause of a Mafiosi custom stating that should a Boss get married, no one is to carry weapons to the reception. Such an act would mean that you defy that Boss' authority.

Gokudera was first to react. He vaulted over the pews, dashed to the altar, wrenched Kyoko's grip off Tsuna, and wrestled the Sky Vongola Ring out of her hand. "_Juudaime_! Get the ring!"

Kyoko put up a good fight, pinning Gokudera against the Altar. "Now I know why he calls you _Juudaime_..." Kyoko said, her usually soft brown eyes now deathglaring Tsuna. "_You're_ the new Vongola Boss aren't you?!"

Tsuna backed away, tripping over a potted plant. "Now what do I do!?" He asked into the air. He crawled backward a few more inches until the back of his head met the cold metal barrel of a gun.

"I suggest you wake up now, _Dame_-Tsuna."

_**BANG!**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

Tsuna sprang out of bed, yelling at the top of his lungs, The sun was shining through his window, his sheets were a mess, and Reborn, as usual, was already fully dressed, his Leon-Hammer slung over his small shoulder.

"It's morning already, be glad that I let you sleep in." reborn stated, flatly, releasing his grip on Leon as it turned back into a Chameleon. Tsuna glanced at the clock, blanched and rounded on Reborn.

"It's six fourty-five in the morning, a Saturday, during summer vacation..._how can you call that sleeping in!?" _He retorted, halfheartedly knowing his outburst is falling on deaf ears.

"It's sleeping in because you're going to Italy today."

Tsuna stopped talking at that remark. "I-i-Italy!? Why am I going to Italy?!"

"Not just you; Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, the stupid cow, and even Hibari is going with you."

"_Why!?_"

"It's an order from Don Timoteo."

Tsuna was speechless. '_The Ninth? I thought he was still recovering...why does he need me to go to Italy?_' A grim thought occured to him and he grimaced.'_Oh no, please don't tell me there making me go up on some Mafia court trial!_'

"Start Packing, Tsuna! Our flight leaves in a couple of hours!"

"_**Nani!?**_"

"Don Timoteo called your mother, telling her about this. He even offered to let her come, but Mama didn't want to come so she's staying home."

B-b-But..."

"Don't worry. Bianchi, Fuuta and I-Pin are staying behind...and I think Iemitsu is giving his plane ticket to Italy to you..."

At the mention of his father, Tsuna slumped back into his cushions at a loss for words. '_Somehow I always knew that Dad was a troublemaker...I just didn't know he would make __**my **__troubles..._'

A sharp blow to the stomach made the young Mafioso-to-be spring back up, yelping in pain. "_Reborn!_"

The infant hitman nimbly leapt off his student, crossing his arms and walking away. "Hmph, if I did that to the _Dame_-Tsuna from when we first met, he would've died from a ruptured stomach."

Tsuna's angry face softened. '_What did he mean...?_'

Reborn slipped out of the room and to the top of the stairs as Leon jumped from his fedora, transformed into a green suitcase and opened up, allowing Reborn to pack the clothes he had already arranged in a neat pile next to the door.

'_You've gotten stronger, Tsuna._' he thought, a minute glimmer of pride shining in the black orbs of his eyes. '_Good thing too...I cannot present a weakling student to the Boss of all Bosses..._'

**o.O.o.O.o**

"_Juudaime_, over here!"

Tsuna's head of wild brown hair whipped around to see his loyal friend and (self-proclaimed) _sotto cappo _**(1)**, or right hand man, Hayato '_Hurricane Bomb_' Gokudera vigorously waving his trinket-adorned arm in the air to call his attention. They were at the Namimori Air Terminal, a few minutes before departure time. Tsuna was the last to arrive, even coming after Hibari, who was staying as far away from the rest of the Guardians as possible and still be within sight and hearing range.

Takeshi '_Yakyuu-baka_' (Baseball Idiot) Yamamoto jogged up to Tsuna flashing him his ever-present wide smile. "How'd you get us invited to Italy, Tsuna?" He asked, shifting the weight of his sports bag on his shoulder.

'_I wish I knew myself, Yamamoto..._' Tsuna thought, smiling sheepishly.

"_Oi, Sawada!_" Ryohei '_to the extreme_' Sasagawa, the captain of the Boxing Team of Nami Middle school, called out as Tsuna and Yamamoto rejoined the group. "_Thanks for the extreme opportunity to travel to Italy!_"

Gokudera, with his microscopic temper, snapped. "_Shut up, Turf-head! You're making my ears bleed!_" He yelled at Ryohei, shaking a ring-covered fist, effortlessly matching the aforementioned young man's pitch of voice.

"_Wanna have a match then, Octopus-head?!_" Ryohei countered, knocking foreheads with Gokudera.

A soft couch and a twang of metal on metal caught their attention before anything could escalate. Hibari sent his icy stare to the group, tucking away the tonfas he knocked against the metal pillar he was leaning to.

"If you're done crowding my hearing range..."He drawled, undertones to irritation seeping through his monotone voice. "The _Akambo _(baby)wants to say something..."

Everyone's attention snapped to Hibari's feet, where sure enough, Reborn was standing there, arms crossed.

"Glad to see everyone's here." He started, jumping onto a nearby planter to place himself within everyone's view. "Now, we're headed to Italy because Don Timoteo has an urgent meeting with Tsuna. While that's underway, you all have free access to the Vongola estate, just so long as you don't cause any explosions, loud noises, shattered glass or brawls with the other Mafiosi." The infant hitman's pure black eyes moved to Gokudera, Ryohei, Yamamoto and Hibari in turn. "Any questions...?" Tsuna raised his hand. "...aside from Tsuna."

When Reborn didn't get any response, he jumped off the planter and walked toward the gate. "Come along then, the plane's waiting."

**o.O.o.O.o**

_Italy, Vongola HQ_

"I've just recieved a report that young Master Sawada and his guardians have just boarded their plane and are on their way to Italy, _Don Vongola Nono_."

"Thank you, David, you may go."

David, a rookie Mafioso, bowed himself out of Don Timoteo's office and closed the door behind him, leaving the 9th Don alone. The elderly Mafia boss picked himself out of his seat and moved towards his floor-length window, looking out at the sky.

"Hmm...I hope Tsunayoshi will be okay..."

"_**Now, Don Timoteo, It's not like you've condemned him to death by inviting him here...**_" A voice said from behind him as an unknown light began to shine.

"Why does it feel like I have...?"

"_**Your worry is understandable, Timoteo...**_"

The 9th Don let out a sigh as he turned around. Sure enough the flame was there, floating around in the darkness, but now, this flame was not bobbing around as if a ball in the water, but it was stationary, resting in the top portion of a person's head. A slightly translucent person with blank, bright yellow eyes that you could almost see a fire burning behind, with wild, golden blond hair spiked at every angle, thin lips in a perfectly straight line, all poised on a young, almost teenage, but in no way innocent, face.

"_**However, your worry is of no place in this matter...no one has died from my Ignition Trial, and I do not intend on changing that.**_"

Timoteo bowed before smiling at the translucent apparition.

"If you say so, _Don Giotto Vongola..._"

**o.O.o.O.o**

**(1) ****Sotto Cappo****: **_**Italian. **_**Translated: Underboss or Second in Command **

**Thank you for your current support, I wish to hear from your comments, criticism and anything else, if you wish to provide them.**

**Until next Update!**


	3. Invitation

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR.**

**Again, thank you for your reviews, and I hope to hear from you later on. As always, Enjoy today's update.**

**Oh and as a side note:**

_**"Any sentences in this format are considered to have been said or stated in Italian."**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial By Dying Will Flame, Chapter 3:**

_**Invitation**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

_Sicily, Italy_

As with any working day, The Sicilian Air Terminal was alive with activity: passengers busting in and out of the large white building, luggage carts wheeling around halls, security and staff going about their rounds, and announcements being played on the PA systems. Still, there was a slight aura of tension hanging low over the staffs' minds. It had started earlier in the morning when a group of people, all wearing black suits and mirror sunglasses came into the _Arrivals_ terminal and approached a few of the guards. After a few moments of hushed whispering, the guards broke away, nodded to the men in suits, and relayed their message to the rest of the employees.

Now, the black suited men dotted almost every entrance and exit in the vicinity, seemingly minding their own businesses. Yet, they all were staring at the large neon screen announcing all arriving flights, to be more precise, one specific flight due to arrive very...very soon.

_**"Flight Number NAT-009 from Namimori, Japan, now landing at Gate 13."**_

This announcement must have been their cue, as they all dropped what they were doing, and began to assemble from their spots. The guards that they conversed with, with masked fear in their eyes, calmly escorted the nearby civilians away from a small door nearby Gate 13 which read _Private: Selected Personnel Only._

Each of the men in suits entered the evacuated room, nodding to the guards as they crossed paths. The last to enter stopped, reached into his pocket to take something out, and shook hands with the closest guard, nodded as well, and left the guards' field of vision.

As soon as the suits were gone, the guard that one of the suits shook hands with let out a breath, looking down at the large roll of Italian Euros in his hand.

_**"Every time..." **_He moaned softly, pocketing the money. _**"Every time a Mafia Boss goes on vacation...wonder who it is **__**this**__** time...?"**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

"So _this _is Italy, huh? It's so beautiful here..."

Tsuna looked out the window one last time before collecting his things from the overhead baggage compartment. The plane ride itself was, in reference to Tsuna's usual excursions with any combination of his guardians, rather ordinary. '_Why couldn't it always be like this?_' He thought, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. '_At least today it feels a little peaceful even though Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto, Hibari-san and Aniki are with me..._' Smiling to himself, Tsuna went through the plane ride in his mind.

Ryohei fell asleep thirty minutes into the flight so the rest of the flight was quiet, much to Gokudera's relief, since he was seated next to the aforementioned Sun Guardian. Hibari fell asleep as well, given he was the only one in the entire row (there was no one assigned to those seats, but whether it was coincidence or Reborn had planned it that way Tsuna didn't want to know) and therefore there was no one in the vicinity he could 'bite' to death.

Gokudera and Yamamoto, at least, had found something productive to do. The former, although he had Lambo, who had arrived on the plane last minute carrying a paper bag full of candy, seated on his lap, donned a pair of half-moon glasses and read a thick, hardbound book (written in Italian, from what Tsuna could surmise) the whole trip. The latter was engrossed in a small handheld game, and judging from one loud exclamation of '_Home Run_' it was about baseball. The young Bovino, seated on the Storm Guardian's lap, was laughing at a comic he was reading, but the usual boisterous laughter was muffled somewhat since he had a large lollipop in his mouth. This was probably the reason why Gokudera had tolerated the 'stupid cow' and not squeezed Lambo's head within the pages of his book.

"_Oi, Juudaime!_" Gokudera called out from further down the cabin, snapping Tsuna back to present time. "You're the last one on the plane!"

Scampering down the aisle, Tsuna hurriedly caught up to his silver-haired guardian, who had stayed behind to wait for his Boss. "What took you, _Juudaime?_" Gokudera asked, worry evident in his emerald eyes.

"N-Nothing, _Gokudera-kun_." Tsuna assured him, holding up his hands. Amber eyes roved to the walkway to the terminal, but then noticed that there were _two _walkways. One walkway was where all the other passengers went, but the other, sealed off by velvet ropes, was where Lambo, Hibari Yamamoto and Ryohei were waiting for him.

"Come on then, Tsuna!" Yamamoto called. "The stewardess said that we should go down this path."

This left the young Mafioso-to-be quite confused. "But, why?"

A woman's voice from behind answered for him. "Your welcoming committee is down this way, _**Don Vongola Decimo**__._"

Tsuna turned around to see two stewardesses, twins apparently, with light brown hair with blonde highlights, bow to him as he met their gaze.

"Decimo?" Tsuna repeated, blinking.

"It's Italian for _Juudaime._" The other stewardess explained, bowing again. Tsuna blinked again, and noticed that the two stewardesses were wearing the same pin. It was brass with a very distinct coat of arms, bearing a single bullet on a shield adorned with vines and (strangely enough) what looked like clams.

At that moment, Reborn stepped out from behind the stewardesses' feet, hands in his pockets. "These two are with the Vongola intelligence-gathering department. They sent out a report to the HQ, and now there's an escort to the Vongola Estate down there in a private driveway."

Behind them, Yamamoto let out an impressed whistle. "Wow, Tsuna. I didn't know you were rich."

"B-but I'm not!"

"Don't be modest, _Juudaime_!" Gokudera beamed, slinging his hand over Tsuna's shoulders. "You should get used to this, since you're gonna take over for the _Kyuudaime_!"

Tsuna, defeated, just let out a sigh and proceeded down the walkway, guardians in tow.

Out in front, Lambo was skipping with glee, singing his (self-appointed) theme song. "Man, it's great to be back in Italy!" The five-year-old hitman proclaimed loudly. "_Ne, ne_, Tsuna, you wanna see my house?"

"Stop beign so noisy, _Aho-shi_!" Gokudera growled, shaking his fist. "We're going to the Vongola Estate!"

Unfortunately, that just made Lambo talk louder. "Oh? We're going to Tsuna's place? Do you have candy there, Tsuna?"

The mentioned teen just hung his head as they neared the end of the walkway. But when they got out of the building into a secluded walkway, he nearly leapt back.

there were about a dozen or so men in suits, a dozen on each side, lined up around a red carpet leading to a large stretch limousine. The limousine's front door was emblazoned with a silver insignia, the same insignia that the stewardesses were wearing pins on.

As one, the twenty-some-odd suited men bowed and rose again. _**"Welcome and enjoy your stay in Sicily, Don Vongola Decimo."**_

"Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like this..."

**o.O.o.O.o**

"Oi, Sawada!" Ryohei called, softer than his usual yell, but still loud. "This is an extreme house you've got here!"

"_Ano_...this isn't my house, _Onii-san_..."

They were all inside the main foyer of the Vongola Estate, and as expected. Being the Headquarters of the most powerful Mafiosi Family, it was adorned with only the best of everything: Antique sculptures, artworks, furniture, tapestries, it looked more like a museum than a mansion. Hibari had decided to stay in the Gardens outside, stating that it was too crowded, and that he had found some Mafiosi who had wanted to brawl with him for training.

"Don't be sorry if I accidentally bite you to death." He had stated ominously, flashing his Tonfas.

As they entered, Lambo had finished the last of his candy, and began to whine for more. Before he could make a scene, a few Mafiosas, after curtseying to Tsuna, asked if they could relieve him of Lambo, to which he gladly agreed.

Tsuna, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of Mafiosi he didn't even know treating him like a king, stuck very close to Gokudera, who took the gesture's meaning and patted his Boss on the shoulder. "Come, on _Juudaime_, relax...this is the safest place you can be."

"I-i-It's not that, _Gokudera-kun_..." Tsuna mumbled, but Gokudera didn't hear it. Just then, a woman wearing a hands-free earpiece approached the guardians, bowed and tapped a clipboard she was holding.

"Excuse me for being so bold, young Guardians." She began to say in accented Japanese, but even accented, her voice was very stern. "But _Don Timoteo _requests an audience with _**Don Tsunayoshi...**_alone, I'm afraid." She added hastily as Gokudera began to say something.

He gave Tsuna an encouraging smile, hoping to lift the young Mafioso-to-be's spirit. "Well, good luck, _Juudaime. _We'll be here if you need anything..."

Tsuna, looking more scared than ever, reluctantly left the large hall with the woman, who was talking to someone with her hands-free.

"Come with me then, _Don Tsunayoshi._" She said politely, bowing a little.

"Um, just call me Tsuna. I'm not used to being called that..."

The woman, after ending the call on her earpiece, bowed again. "I'm sorry for discomforting you."

Tsuna, feeling guilty, raised his hands. "No, no...that's okay..."

The mafiosa looked at his hands and noticed something. "Where is the Sky Vongola Ring?" She asked, the stern tone returning, her eyes flashing worry. The aforementioned emotions faded when Tsuna brought out a chain he was wearing around his neck which the ring was fastened too.

"It draws too much attention if I wear it."

The mafiosa nodded and continued on her way down the large halls of the Vongola Estate. After a few moments of silence, Tsuna decided to break the ice. "_A-ano..._do you, by any chance know why I was called here?" He asked, hoping for an answer to soothe his worry.

"I'm sorry, Tsuna. I don't know anything about why...I just received orders to escort you to his office." She replied, shaking her head.

"Thanks anyway, ma'am."

"Please, Tsuna, I'm the one who should be courteous to you. My name is Amelia if you wish to know."

"Thank you then, Amelia-san."

The mafiosa smiled warmly, eventually giggling. "Forgive me, Tsuna, but you remind me so much of my son, Angelo."

Tsuna just smiled in reply. '_Phew...at least she's nice._' He thought to himself as he looked around the hall they were in. There were numerous works of art lining the walls, and the numerous windows they passed by were adorned with bright orange velvet curtains with gold clams in the curtain rods.

"Amelia, why are there clams everywhere?" Tsuna asked, curiosity overcoming his anxiety of the impending meeting.

"Oh? Ah, that's right, you didn't grow up here..." She began, smiling at him thoughtfully, easing his anxiety more. "In Italian, _Vongola _means 'clam'."

"Really?"

"That is why the Vongola Insignia includes clams."

They had just entered a large den, with a luxurious fireplace which had a bright fire burning in it, giving the room an orange glow. The curtains here were of bright gold with clam embroidery, as were the numerous sofas and armchairs in the room. But what Tsuna was most interested in where the nine large oil painting portraits on the wall opposite the fireplace. Timoteo's portrait was on the far right, and the third portrait from the left looked a lot like Xanxus, but the one in the center, the largest, and (by the look of it) the oldest, was what drew Tsuna's attention the most. The man depicted, although blond with equally golden eyes, looked just like him!

"Ano, Amelia...who is this?"

The mafiosa, who was pulling back the curtains, glanced to Tsuna's direction and smiled. "Ah, I see you've noticed the portraits of the past Bosses."

She walked up to him and pointed to the portraits one by one. "From the left is Daniella De Mavelione, the _**Ottavo **_or Eighth Boss; Leonardo Rondelvi, the _**Sesto **_or Sixth; Brutus Del Montefiendo; **Quarto **or Fourth and Xavier Don Xielentra, **Secondo **or Second. And from the right is Don Timoteo; Guideo Suveriante, **Settimo **or Seventh, Alexandro Di Foilegrante, **Quinto **or Fifth, and Grandelfo Truanteas, _**Terzo**_ or Third." **(1)**

Tsuna scanned the portraits one by one as she introduced them, but kept looking back to the center portrait. "Amelia..."

"I know Tsuna, I was admiring the resemblance as well..." She said, looking to the center portrait, then Tsuna, and back again. "This one is the _**Cappo di Tutti Capi**__,_ the Boss of All Bosses. The Founder of _**La Vongola Famiglia**__, _Giotto Vongola."

"Giotto..." Tsuna repeated, staring at the portrait. Before he realized it, Amelia was already at the door. "You have to wait here for _Don Timoteo, _Tsuna. I'll take my leave now." She said, leaving Tsuna alone in the large room.

Tsuna took a few steps back and examined Giotto's portrait. It was unnerving, their similarities. The almost exact same hairstyles, shape of the face...it was as if that was a picture of Tsuna who dyed his hair blond.

"So you're my great-great-great-grandfather..." Tsuna mused, looking at the other portraits. There were still a few things he was questioning. Why did Giotto look so young compared to the rest of the bosses? Why did he create a Mafiosi Family? Why did the Second Boss look a lot like Xanxus?

Just then, he noticed there was a table under Giotto's portrait. On that table there sat a large gold clam that was slightly ajar. Moving closer, Tsuna turned his head to the side to see if there was anything inside it. As he peered in, he noticed that there was an orange light coming from inside!

'_Well, it wouldn't hurt to open it...it __**does**__ have a hinge...maybe it's a special kind of lamp or something._' Tsuna thought lifting the upper part of the clam.

Almost immediately after he regretted it when he felt the floor under his feet gave way and he fell silently through a trapdoor so fast he didn't have a chance to scream.

**o.O.o.O.o**

**(1) **The Names used for the past Vongola Bosses are all of my creation, with inspiration coming from already existing stories about the eighth and seventh.

**Enjoy my latest chapter, Until next update!**


	4. Initiation

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR**

**This might be a little early, considering the past three chapters have been five days apart. But taking into account that I've received complaints of leaving a cliffhanger, and a dramatic opening of my usual routine (because of summer vacation)...I've decided to type this chapter out now.**

**Also, to the Anonymous Reviewer with bad English: I may be a Grammar Nazi, but as long as you're not cursing me, your bad English is excusable. (and if you ask me personally, it's not that bad)**

_**"A sentence in this format is understood as being said in Italian."**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter 4:**

_**Initiation**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

It was another routine patrol that day. As always, he had on a complete black tuxedo, in broad daylight, out in the open. As always, he had a semi-automatic pistol hidden away in his blazer, and a rifle slung over his shoulder. As always, he was very, very glad that the headquarters was on top of a tall, breezy hill, otherwise he might have overheated in the summer sun.

_**"Guido? Where are you?" **_Someone up ahead called out. _**"The **__**Caporegime**__** is looking for you!" **_**(1)**

Guido Esteofani hastened his pace, making sure that his tuxedo was still acceptably straight as he made his way up the marble steps of the Vongola Estate Garden to his senior and fellow mafioso, 29-year-old Alejandro De Ophilan. Guido, at 21 years old, is a newly inducted mafioso into the Vongola from one of its alliance families, and as such, he was still quite new to the unimaginably large headquarters. The veteran mafiosi here could jog three times around the gardens in full mafiosi attire without breaking a sweat, and here Guido was, huffing and perspiring after only going up the thirty-some-odd steps.

Alejandro grinned at the sight and lightly patted his friend on the back. _**"You really should exercise more, Guido." **_he commented, earning him a light glare from the panting mafioso.

_**"It's not my fault." **_Guido retorted, straightening both his body and his blazer, dusting himself off. _**"The Esteofani HQ is not as large as this. Heck, I think you can fit my old HQ ten times in this garden alone!"**_

Alejandro chuckled and put his mirrored sunglasses on his head, his dull gray eyes fixed on Guido's still covered ones. _**"Back to business, the **__**Caporegime**__** wants to talk to you, I'll take over while you're gone."**_

Guido took a deep breath. Running his hand through his sand-colored hair, he cast Alejandro a worried look._** "Why me? Don't tell me I did something wrong..." **_

_**"I doubt it, he looked more exhausted than angry...I think he just needs more hands on deck."**_

_**"Why didn't he call you then?"**_

Getting a shrug in reply, Guido reluctantly handed over the slung rifle and, after taking a long, deep breath, began to run through the gardens to the west wing entrance of the mansion proper.

As soon as he closed the door, a gruff voice called out for him. _**"Guido Esteofani!"**_

_**"Present and reporting, sir!" **_Guido called back, standing at attention. Another man, in his late thirties, with a large cross scar on one side of his forehead, another scar on his upper lip, and a still-reddish bruise on his cheek, came up to Guido, stopping at around five paces away. This man, _**Caporegime **_Donald Resteon, ten year veteran of the Vongola Family Security Division, was never one to give in to adversity and absolutely never one to call for backup unless it was completely necessary, and those scars were a testament to that. Guido even heard that he had taken down fifty armed rival mafiosi with a bullet through his chest and a broken firing arm before passing out from the blood loss.

So it was no surprise that Guido was worried. Right now, his superior's scarred face was twisted up with vexation, teeth gritted and bearded chin in lock jaw.

Resteon didn't waste time and cut straight to the point._**"**__**La Famiglia Esteofani**__** has been known to produce some of the most diligent, patient and resourceful of Mafiosi, am I correct Guido?" **_He asked, although the tone of voice he was using didn't sound like it was interrogative.

_**"Yes, sir." **_

Then, a loud crash and boisterous laughter rang through the adjacent room, which was the kitchen. At the sounds, Resteon's face mask slipped a little, and Guido could see that his superior, the indomitable Donald Resteon, was at his wit's end. _**"I've dealt with almost everything the Rival families could throw at me, but I can never believe that I would be hassled into submission by members of the **__**Decimo**__**'s Family!"**_

Just then, a loud banging from behind Resteon and Guido directed both of their attentions to the kitchen doorway, where Lambo, carrying Dynamite sticks in his arms, sped past them and into the hall. Gokudera appeared afterward, tossing some of his Rocket Bombs into the air. "**Lambo, you god-forsaken cow, give me back those Dynamite Sticks!"**

As the two disappeared from view, Guido finally understood what was his superior's Achilles' Heel: children. Even more so, infant mafiosi hitmen who weren't part of the _Arcobaleno_.

**o.O.o.O.o**

"Ow, ow, ow...where am I?"

Tsuna propped himself up in a sitting position, rubbing his aching head gingerly. As his amber eyes scanned his surroundings, his anxiety rose again. He was in a large, pitch blach room with the only visible path straight ahead of him. What was strange was that even though the entire room was black (he can't even tell where the walls were), in stark contrast, the path was well-lit with spotlights hanging overhead. Even stranger, the floor was tiled with seemingly random red, white and green panels, and the ominous aura that Tsuna was getting from that direction made him dread this place even more.

"Hello?" He called, standing up. "Is there anyone here?"

As expected, there was no answer. Sighing, he moved closer to the lighted path, inching his way across the pitch black stone floor.

'_Where is this place?_' He asked himself, looking around again once his eyes adjusted. '_Am I under the headquarters?_'

He was a few feet away from the path now, and the dread he got from them increased tenfold. '_It's the only way out of this room, but why do I feel so scared when I get near this...?_' He stopped and took a few steps back. As he did so, the dread lifted somewhat. Then he remembered something Reborn said back when he had faced Mukuro. '_The Vongola Hyper Intuition..._' He realized. '_It must be that...why else?_'

Tsuna took a breath and walked up to the path, trying to ignore the dread that his Hyper Intuition was feeding him. But as he was about to step on the path, specifically the first green tile, he stopped. The hairs on the back of his head stood on end. 'There is someone nearby.' Tsuna's Hyper Intuition was saying. 'Stay Alert.'

Sure enough, someone called out in the darkness.

_**"Wait! Don't step on that!" **_

Immediately, Tsuna withdrew his foot and whirled around. "Who's there?" Tsuna's hands dived into his pockets and into his awaiting X-gloves, in their guise of small woolen mittens.

Out from the shadows, head bowed, came a hooded man wearing a dark purple pinstripe suit concealed in a thick velveteen cloak. This man was a mere head taller than Tsuna, a deviation from the near-six-feet tall Mafiosi. _**"The path is rigged, Decimo. Don't walk without knowledge of the way."**_

Tsuna took a step back, his heel almost grazing the green tile. "I-I don't understand you..." He said, his voice wavering with fear. "What are you saying?"

The hooded man stopped a few feet from Tsuna and bowed regally. "Ah, forgive me, Decimo." He said in perfect Japanese. "Allow me to repeat myself. I had said that the path before you is riddled with traps, so do not step without knowledge of the true path."

'_That explains the feeling of dread..._' Tsuna thought, looking back to the path. '_Speaking of feeling..._' He looked back to the hooded man, who stood still, observing the young Mafioso-to-be. '_I don't feel scared when I'm around him..._'

True, usually, when around unknown or suspicious characters, Tsuna would usually feel scared or anxious. At first he attributed it to his lack of bravery, but now he understood that it was his Hyper Intuition warning him.

"Who are you?" The Tenth-to-be asked questioningly. "What are you doing here?"

"I am but a friend, young Decimo." The man replied, taking off the silver cuffs on his wrists. He didn't seem to have trouble removing them, even though he was wearing silken dress gloves, which hindered precision finger dexterity. "I am here to guide you back to your family."

Tsuna watched as the man stepped up to the path, holding out the two cuffs in an open hand. In the light, he was able to notice that on the back of the gloves, the Vongola Insignia was embroidered with a bright orange thread. "What do you mean, 'the true path'?" The young boy asked.

"Remember this well, young Decimo." He stated before taking one of the cuffs into his other hand. "_White is the symbol of purity, and the serene beauty of the snow in the Italian mountains and winter_." As he recited this, he dropped the cuff onto the white tile. Immediately after it hit the tile, three spikes from seemingly nowhere dropped and pierced the area where the cuff landed, one of them skewering the cuff so much that it pierced the silver.

Tsuna leaped back at the sight of the spikes, but the other did not even flinch. Undaunted, he took the other cuff into his hand and moved it over the green tile, the same one that Tsuna was about to step on. "_Green represents the mountainside, and the lush rolling plains of the Italian pasture, and for the silent but diligent toil of the farmers who have come to tame the green land."_ As with the white, he dropped the cuff onto the green tile. A moment of nothing, and then the green tile seemed to fall into a bottomless abyss.

The hooded man turned back to a gaping Tsuna, called him closer with his hand, and spoke again. "_Red is the sign of passion, of courage and honor and the blood spilled by those who fought to protect their country, their flag...their family. For without the family, a man is naught but an empty shell._" Calmly, the hooded man stepped onto the Red tile. Seeing nothing happen, Tsuna approached the hooded man, who turned back to look at him from under his hood. "Live to protect your family, Decimo." He said whilst moving down the path, stepping only on the red tiles. "Now come and follow me." The young Tenth, shaking away his astonishment, did as he was told and hopped on the red tiles, keeping a fair distance between him and his guide, who almost floated over the tiles if you looked at the way his cloak was flaring you behind him.

It was a long path, but eventually Tsuna caught up with the hooded man, who had stopped to wait for him in a large, painting adorned circular room. Each painting was of the same castle-like building (Tsuna assumed it was an older version of the Vongola HQ) but from a different angle and portraying a different time of day.

"Where are we now, sir?" Tsuna inquired, almost stumbling over his own feet on the last red tile. His companion seemed to glide across the floor, stopping in the exact center of the room.

"There is a door concealed behind one of these paintings, young Decimo." The mysterious man stated, gesturing to the paintings with a sweeping gloved hand. "That door leads to the Vongola Boss' emergency bunker, which has an elevator to the main house within."

"Do you know which one it is?" Tsuna asked. But as soon as the question left his lips, his Hyper Intuition already knew the answer.

"It is the duty of the Boss to know." The cloaked man replied.

"Of course." Tsuna muttered sarcastically, scanning the paintings closely. At first, he couldn't see any obvious details giving away the correct doors secret, but he _did _notice something off about the paintings. The cloaked man watched on as Tsuna closed his eyes, deep in thought.

And then it hit him.

Tsuna glanced at the closest painting to his left. It was from a worm's eye view, looking up at the white-gray castle, with grey storm clouds gathering over the tall bright orange spires. "This one shows a storm..." He then cast a glance at the one next to it, where the castle was shown in side view, with an ominously dark sky with a single lightning bolt striking a flagpole in the center of the castle grounds. "This one is of thunder..." The next was of bird's eye view, on a fog-filled night. "This one of mist..." The next at ground level, with the mountains behind showing an orange sunrise. "This one is of the sun..." The next was ground level as well, but the focus was directed towards the sky, with a heavy downpour. "This one is of rain..." And the last was focused on the steeple, with the bright sun hidden behind fluffy white clouds. "And this one is of Clouds."

"Very observative, Decimo." The cloaked man agreed. "Now which among these is the right painting?"

"None of these."

Tsuna then faced the portrait behind him, with was a full front on angle of the castle, on a cloudless day with the sun out of range of the picture. "It's this one, the one showing the Sky."

The cloaked man didn't reply, but moved towards the sky painting and pushed on one side, causing it to move up and disappear, leaving a large opening for them to walk through.

"I applaud your knowledge of the attributes of the Vongola Rings, young Decimo." He said, ducking his head to get though the opening, his hood sliping a little to reveal that he was smiling. "Now come with me, it is time."

**o.O.o.O.o**

"Now where did that _aho-shi _go!?"

Gokudera was probably set to explode with rage right now. He was lost in the Vongola HQ, lost his trail of Lambo, and most of all, he had lost the experimental Dynamite Sticks he was working on in the library.

Desperately wanting to hit something, the silver-haired Storm guardian turned on his heel and entered the first room he came across, pushing the door open with one hand like he was in his own home.

Imagine his astonishment when he realized he had walked into Don Timoteo's home office.

Worry of an irritated Don Timoteo crept up his spine as Gokudera hastily closed the door behind him, not that keen on being seen here. Why didn't he leave? Perhaps the stupid cow was hiding in here, playing with his precious Dynamite Sticks. With a cautious bearing he began searching though the large, ornately-decorated office, carefully looking under the four poster bed and large oak desks, looking behind the velvet curtains, and perhaps everywhere else he could think of, but unfortunately there was no sign of the cowprint-clad 5 year old.

"Darn, Lambo." Gokudera growled, lazily scanning the books behind the desk he was standing behind. One book near the bottom, _Practical Application of Nitroglycerin_, caught his eye. '_Maybe I can find out a good formula for my Dynamite..._'

He pulled down on the book, but was surprised when he heard something click behind the bookshelf, before the entire thing slid aside and showed an elevator behind it.

"An elevator? Maybe that's where the cow went!"

Without thinking, Gokudera stepped into the secret elevator and waited as the wenches began to whirl and the elevator itself descend.

**o.O.o.O.o**

"Time...?" Tsuna asked as he stepped through the opening after his guide. The new room was dim, but at least Tsuna could still see. There was a chair in the center of the room, bathed in light from a single bulb. Other than that, the room was bare. "What do you mean...?"

"He means..." A new voice piqued, somewhere behind Tsuna. "It's time for you to undergo a Trial."

Tsuna whirled around to see Don Timoteo coming up to him, wearing a solemn face.

"Trial?" Tsuna repeated, the anxiety from when he first came here returning. "Oh no, I knew it...I didn't mean to attack you during that Cloud battle, I swear it!"

Don Timoteo smiled. "No, Tsuna, not that kind of trial."

Tsuna relaxed a little, but leaped back when he saw a silvery revolver in Timoteo's hands. "K-k-_Kyuudaime..._" The tenth-to-be stumbled back, amber eyes focused on the revolver.

"Don't worry so much, Tsuna my boy..." Timoteo said soothingly, bringing the revolver to his face. "I'm not going to kill you...but it is the will of the _Cappo Di Tutti Capi._"

'_Cappo Di Tutti Capi?_' the words echoed in Tsuna's mind. "But isn't that Giotto?"

"Oh, so you know his story? Yes, I mean it is by _Don Giotto_'s order."

Tsuna began to feel uneasy, inching his way back to the opening. "You said something about a trial..." He started, hoping to stall for time. "What did you mean...?"

Timoteo lowered the revolver and raised his scepter, which ignited. "Haven't you wondered why I can do this, Tsuna? I mean, igniting my weapon without the Dying Will Bullet?"

Tsuna stopped inching away at the moment. "Actually...yes. Yes I have."

This was true, during his time recovering, he had on occasion thought of it, and sometimes tried to do it himself to no avail. He stopped that train of thought when Don Timoteo spoke again. "I can do such because I had undergone what is called 'The Trial by Dying Will Flame'. It's a tradition that had started with the _Terzo_, and has been conducted on all the bosses since...and Tsuna, it's your turn now."

Tsuna just stood there, rooted to his spot as he saw the cloaked man come up from behind Don Timoteo. Stopping just behind, the man raised his hand and slowly slipped the hood off his head.

As the hood fell off, Tsuna's awe increased a hundred fold. There was no mistaking it. The golden blond hair, the wild hairstyle, the gold nuggets for eyes... "G-G-Giotto?!"

"It is customary to respect your predecessors, young Decimo." Giotto stated sternly, his stoic golden eyes focused sharply on Tsuna's amber ones. He then turned to Don Timoteo, who nodded. "Time grows short, Timoteo. Make haste and strike true."

Tsuna couldn't move back even if he wanted to. And believe it, he wanted to. He stood transfixed as Giotto was slowly engulfed in fire, his body disappearing until he was nothing but a small tongue of flame floating in the air. He couldn't move his legs, deadened by shock, as the tongue of flame moved to the barrel of Timoteo's revolver and, somehow, slipped inside. Somewhere, in the corner of Tsuna's eye, he saw a sleek silver elevator slide open its doors, releasing Gokudera from within.

_**"Strike now, Timoteo!" **_

The moment the trigger was pulled, time slowed to a crawl. The revolver fired, Gokudera began to dash towards his Boss, who began to fall backward, his body forming a graceful arc as he fell. The silver-haired bomber dived down, just barely catching Tsuna in his arms, looking up at Don Timoteo with fiercely burning emerald eyes.

Time sped up back to normal. Timoteo raised the revolver and pocketed it, keeping eye contact with Gokudera, his emotions hidden. "The Trial is complete."

"Trial?!" Gokudera spat, cradling Tsuna in his arms as he straightened. "_You killed the Juudaime_! _Who do you think you are_!?"

As Gokudera began to reach for a Dynamite Stick, Timoteo held up his arms. "Wait a moment Gokudera, and look closely at Tsuna."

Emerald eyes snapped to Tsuna's face and widened when he saw a tongue of flame ignite on Tsuna's forehead. "A Dying Will Bullet?"

Timoteo knelt down by Tsuna's side, taking him in his arms before standing up. "Technically no. But he is still alive. He won't wake for a while, I'm sorry to say."

He began to walk to the elevator, stopping for a moment. "Come, we should get out of this place."

He continued walking, the silver-haired teen at his heels.

**o.O.o.O.o**

**(1) **_**Capporegime: **__Italian. _Transliterated: Squad Boss; Translated: Captain

**Happy reading everyone, and until next update!**


	5. Ascension

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR.

* * *

**

**There have been a lot of sleepless nights wherein I've thought over how to write this without it sounding particularly similar to **_**Yu-Gi-Oh! **_**and on each of those nights I've come up with no solution to that problem. Unfortunately, years of expertise on said anime has made this problem, so I apologize if it is not to your liking.**

**Enjoy Chapter five if you can excuse my inabilities.

* * *

**

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter 5:**

_**Ascension**_

**o.O.o.O.o

* * *

**

_Sicily, Italy; Vongola HQ Gardens_

There is a portion of the Vongola Estate's gardens that people rarely approach. One reason was that it was at the bottom of the breezy hill that the old, imposing mansion was built on, and therefore did not have the estate's cool cross breeze. Another reason, linked to the first, was that it took a flight of close to fifty steps of stairs to reach, and so the Mafiosi sentries decided to omit this from their rounds, seeing as though it took twice as much energy to climb up the stairs than go down, any intruder would be tired and easy to subdue. Yet another was that it was the site of the Vongola Bosses' Mausoleum, and a long-standing order from the Late Vongola _Quinto _stated that it should always remain a neutral and weapon-free zone, out of respect for the Bosses passed on.

Unfortunately, the people who obeyed this solemn rule where those who have pledged allegiance to _La Famiglia Vongola_. And right now, the suited men who've entered this zone are far from allies.

_**"Is the coast clear?" **_One of them asked, poking his companion in the back with the barrel of his pistol.

The other whapped the poker upside the head, glaring at him. _**"Watch where you point that thing! And yes, the Mole said that this was the weak link in the Vongola Security Chain."**_

The first, rubbing his head, turned and signaled for the others of their small group forward, stepping out into view. They were a small bunch, around ten or so, but each of them were armed to the teeth with whatever they could carry: sniper rifles, grenades, smoke bombs, C4, you name it, they're probably carrying it. They crept across the slightly overgrown grass and wildflowers, wary of alerting any roving guards on the top of the hill.

_**"There you guys are...you're late." **_Said another voice, coming from behind the large marble mausoleum.

Two men readied their weapons as a reflex, but their leader, the one who was poked, raised a hand. _**"Had to take a few detours, 'mole'. Now how do we get into the mansion?"**_

The 'mole' chuckled darkly, before beckoning them with his hand. _**"Over here...there's a tunnel that leads right into the Vongola Estate's cellar from here." **_He lead the group into a dense forested area in between the hill and a large rock, slowing his pace because of the moss-covered and rocky path.

_**"How come no one knows of this place...?" **_Asked one of the armed suited men bringing up the rear.

_**"The tunnel is an old escape route from the Vongola Primo's time. During the time of Settimo's reign, there were other, more secure escape routes out of the estate, and this one was completely forgotten."**_

_**"Heh." **_Commented another armed suit. _**"Hey, Jacques, you sure this guy's on **__**our**__** side? He knows way too much about Vongola."**_

_**"Shut the hell up." **_The leader, Jacques, snapped. _**"That's my brother you're talking about!"**_

The first closed his mouth and bowed his head in shame. _**"Yes, sir."**_

Jacques snorted and turned back to his brother, the 'mole'. _**"Any closer, Alejandro?"**_

Alejandro de Ophilan turned back to them and pointed to a cave almost invisible due to the amount of moss and vines covering it. _**"There it is, now, get up into the mansion and do your job, I'll do mine in the meantime."**_

The two brothers nodded to each other, and went their separate ways. Alejandro watched as Jacques disappeared into the darkness of the cave, then turned around and made his way back up the steps of the Estate.

'_Heh, it's all according to plan...' _He thought as he appeared back into the garden, fixing himself up, ridding himself of grass, moss and dirt stains. '_Most of the guards would be beaten up by that arrogant Cloud guardian, the rest would deal with the mess the other guardians would've caused, the __**Nono's **__still recovering, and the __**Decimo**__'s still inexperienced. This'll be the assassination of the century! Two generations of Vongola Bosses in one strike!_'

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Back up at the mansion, it was as Alejandro had predicted, everything was a mess.

Most of the mafiosi were either after or chased after by the many rocket bombs that Lambo had (accidentally) set off, while the aforementioned infant was crying and cowering under an upturned chair.

"Gotta...stay...calm..." Lambo moaned, as an overhead explosions sent him curling up into a ball.

Yamamoto and Ryohei, standing back to back, along with a few other mafiosi were the ones standing their ground, downing (but not detonating) as many rocket bombs as possible. Unfortunately, these were Gokudera's experimental ones, designed to stay in the air for as long as possible, change direction as many times was possible, and to explode as soon as wick gave out or it crashed into something.

"Man, Gokudera really knows how to make fun toys!" Yamamoto commented, slicing a couple of flying rocket bombs in half with his Katana, making them harmlessly fall onto the awaiting floor. "Right, _Ryohei-senpai_?"

"_Right you are, Yamamoto!_" Ryohei yelled in agreement, leaping into the air and grabbing two rocket bombs, one in each hand, and squeezing the gunpowder out of them.

The Mafiosi, while admiring and applauding the skills of the Vongola Guardians, were shooting the rocket bombs in midair before they could make any serious damage by being too close to the walls or furniture. A few more moments of this, and the rocket bombs were no longer dangerous. As the last one was rendered inert, Yamamoto sheathed his katana and hoisted it over his shoulder. "By the way, where are Hibari and Gokudera?"

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

_**Crack!**_

_**"Okay, okay! I give! I surrender!"**_

"What was that? I don't understand Italian..."

_**Crack!**_

"I surrender!" A suited man pleaded, tears forming in his black shielded eyes, falling flat on his face as Hibari let go of his twisted arm. The Vongola Cloud guardian sheathed his tonfas with a demented-looking satisfied smile, looking at the unconcious Mafiosi around him. In a span of a single hour, Hibari had taken down a dozen or so trained Mafiosi, with a combined kill list of some thousand men, and the only mark they made on the young man were the numerous bloodstains on his pristine white shirt from their bloody wounds or noses.

"Heh, the _akambo _was right...Italian Mafiosi are tough..." Hibari commented, running his hand through his hair. "...but not tough enough for me..."

He then strode over to a bench overlooking a large cliff and took a seat on it, glancing down at his bloody white shirt and tonfas. "Hmph...better take a bath...I still have blood stuck on my teeth."

from this perch, he had a complete view of the lower garden which surrounded the mausoleum, and from there, he saw the dozen or so armed suits conversing with their mole down below. Silently, Hibari stood up, made his way across the sea of unconscious mafiosi and into the estate. But as he was about to grasp the brass knob of the gate, someone called him behind.

"Hibari."

The Cloud Guardian turned around, unfazed at the sudden call. "What, _akambo_?"

Reborn, sitting in the branches of a nearby tree, leapt down and gave Hibari a piece of paper. "Follow these directions...I think you'll be very pleased at what you might see."

Reborn then leapt up into the tree again, leaving a slightly interested Hibari scanning the note.

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

It was quiet in the elevator as Gokudera leaned against the wall, keeping his icy glare on Don Timoteo's back. '_**Juudaime**..._' He thought, shifting his gaze from Don Timoteo to the unconscious Tsuna in the former's arms. '_**Juudaime**, what happened to you...This never happened when **Reborn-san** shot you...at least...I think it didn't. But that doesn't matter now...what matters is that I wasn't there for you...**again**!_' At this Gokudera hit his fist against the steel elevator wall.

"It was not your fault." Timoteo stated simply to Gokudera as the elevator doors slid open. "You weren't meant to see this."

The green eyed guardian's head snapped to the elderly Boss. "I stand by _Juudaime's_ side even if it means my death! You can't do anything to stop me!"

Timoteo didn't reply, but lay Tsuna onto his four poster bed. "An honorable resolve, young guardian..." He began, slowly turning to face the silver-haired teen. "But you must understand that there are forces beyond your control that govern the will of others' fate."

Gokudera did not know what, but there was something about Don Timoteo's body language that was off. "What do you mean...?" Reflexively, he reached for one of his dynamite sticks.

Timoteo outwardly did not seem to notice the tension that Gokudera was emanating, for me made no attempt to ready himself."I'm sure you know of the Vongola's past, and its _Capo di Tutti Capi_."

"Vaguely."

"Well, you must know that the _Don Primo_ was quite an extraordinary man. He had a resolve that many would deem inhuman..._godlike, _perhaps. Nothing, once he had decided, would stop him from achieving his goal. His resolve, much akin to the Vongola's symbol of power, was as unstoppable as the burning flame."

"Of course, it was the _Vongola Primo _who discovered the Dying Will Flame. It was because of that flame, and the resolve behind it, that raised the Vongola to the throne of the Mafia underground kingdom."

"So you know...but I doubt you know the _truth _about _Don Giotto Vongola._"

"Oh?"

Timoteo straightened, propping his scepter in a regal manner. "Yes, the succeeding Vongola Bosses all shared _Don Primo's _bloodline, and it is because of this that they all have a specific Dying Will Flame akin to their character. But _Don Primo's _flame is special, and all of the other Bosses' flames pale in comparison."

The hairs on the back of Gokudera's head stood on end. There was a presence in this room. The air was tense, he could feel his heartbeat in his throat. His mind was telling him to look over his shoulder, but he kept fighting against it. "How so...?"

"_Don Giotto_'s flame...the first flame of its kind...is the only flame in the world to keep burning..."

The feeling grew stronger, but Gokudera kept his focus on Don Timoteo, and in doing such, he didn't notice the door creak open.

"even..._from beyond the grave_."

The last words were lost to the wind as gunshots fired off from the doorway, Gokudera and Timoteo barely dodged the crossfire as both sets of eyes snapped to the long gunman in the doorway.

"**_Alejandro_**!?" Timoteo gasped, before grasping his right shoulder, which was bleeding from a somewhat deep wound.

_**"It was all according to plan..." **_Alejandro was saying, his firing arm steadily aimed on Timoteo's forehead. _**"The commotion caused by that accursed cow-child gave my team the perfect diversion to invade the ****'supposedly'**__** impregnable Vongola Estate."**_

Gokudera made a move to attack, but Alejandro casually brought out another pistol, again aimed at Gokudera's head, right between the eyes._** "Make a move, and both of your brains get bullets."**_

_**"Why Alejandro?!" **_Timoteo cried out, a little too loudly than what was expected. **_"Why would you betray the family this way?!"_**

This piqued Gokudera's curiosity. '_Why is he shouting? There's no one up here...as this guy said, they're all downstairs fighting the invaders..._'

_**"Heh. Why, you ask?" **_Alejandro chortled, keeping his aim on Timoteo's face. _**"For the usual reasons people want you dead. You've held power for far too long, Vongola. Four hundred years is an ample reign for an old family such as this. It's time for you to step down, and you know it. And with the demise of 'two' generations of Vongola Bosses dead by the hands of the 'La Famiglia De Ophilan', we'll rise to power as you fall from grace!"**_

As the conversation was going on, Gokudera was soon forgotten. Good thing too, it gave him a moment to prepare a counterattack, but then suddenly, he stopped.

In the corner of Gokudera's eye, he saw Tsuna, still on Don Timoteo's bed. The young boy still was not awake, but Gokudera could see what was happening well.

The flame was invisible to Alejandro, from what the silver-haired guardian could surmise, but Gokudera could see that it was flickering wildly. At first it was shining brightly, then it would weaken to a small ember, and then brighten again...as if it was struggling to stay lit...

Wait, _struggling to stay lit_?

"_**Juudaime**_!" Gokudera yelled, running to Tsuna's side, disregarding the shot he received to his right calf. Wincing the pain off, he continued to dash to Tsuna's side, blood from the open wound trailing on the expensive carpet.

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

_'Where am I...? I feel so light...The last thing I remember is the **Kyuudaime **aiming a gun at me...am I dead...?'_

_**'No. You are not dead.'  
**_

_'Who was that...? Who are you...?'_

_**'Someone you can trust, young Decimo.**_'

_'That voice...I know that voice.'_

_**'That's right...you know me. Open your eyes, young Decimo.'**_

Tsuna obeyed, and slowly, round amber eyes revealed themselves. Tsuna was lying on his back, surrounded by white mist under a bright blue sky.

"Where am I...?" He asked into the air, feeling strangely calm despite unfamiliar, and downright eerie surroundings.

_**'A plane of existence that is not in heaven, earth or the fiery depths of the underworld.' **_The voice replied stoically from behind Tsuna.

The brunet boy whirled around, the mist kicking up at his feet. "_G-Giotto-san!_"

True enough, the blond Mafia Boss was standing there behind Tsuna, unfazed by the eerie scenery from which he stood out in stark contrast in his black pinstripe suit and black cape with blue trimmings. _**'Do not be troubled, Decimo.'** _He continued._**'Your life has not ceased, I have just summoned you here.'**_

"Summoned...?" Tsuna was even more confused than before. "What do you mean, 'not in heaven or on earth'?"

Giotto glided over to Tsuna's side, his black cape flaring out behind him, sending the white mist into the air. _**'This place is my domain, where I continue to exist. I instructed Timoteo to call you here so that I may converse with you.'**_

"So, you mean..."

_**'Yes, Decimo. Just because my corporeal body has long since been returned back to Mother Earth, it does not mean that I have ceased to exist.'**_

"So you're a ghost...?"

Giotto blinked at the sudden outburst, but regained composure almost immediately. _**'To place a term for it, yes.'**_

Tsuna quieted down, unsure of how to word his next question. "Ano..._Giotto-san_, I remember the _Kyuudaime __say something about a trial..._**"**

**_'So you do remember...' _**Giotto began, shifting his cape so that it did not cover his arms, revealing his silk-gloved hands. **_'The Trial By Dying Will Flame.'_**

"Yes, that." Tsuna replied as he watched Giotto ball his right hand into a fist, which afterwards ignited with a Dying Will Flame. Slowly, the gloves he wore lost their smooth silken texture and became harder and darker, turning into a similar pair to his own X-Gloves.

_**'The Trial by Dying Will Flame is my own personal evaluation of the successor to the Vongola seat of power. Should the candidate pass my evaluations, he or she will be ordained by my own personal seal, which is the ability to ignite their Flame at will.'**_

"And..." Tsuna began, fighting down the stammering he was used to using. "A-a-and if they d-d-don't pass...?"

Before the _Primo _could reply, a loud, echoing voice pierced the entire area.

"**_Juudaime!_**"

"Huh? was that _Gokudera-kun_?!" Tsuna exclaimed, wheeling around.

_**'Something is amiss.' **_Giotto growled, waving his hand in the air. At his gesture, the mists parted to reveal something that looked like a pool of transparent water, as if looking through an aquarium into the floor below.

Through this watery window, Tsuna saw himself lying on a bed, unmoving with a Dying Will Flame on his forehead, whilst Timoteo was next to it, held at gunpoint by a suited man. Gokudera, who was nearby, dashed toward Tsuna's body, even after being shot, and collapsed by Tsuna's side.

"_Hang in there, **Juudaime!**_" he pleaded, grabbing onto Tsuna's hand. From behind, the two observers saw the suited man come up to Gokudera and force him to turn around.

_**"Damn it, you half-breed brat!" **_He yelled, positioning his pistol right in between Gokudera's eyes. _**"You'll be the first to die..."**_

"**_Gokudera-kun!_**" Tsuna yelled, dropping to his knees.

_**'Decimo. We must act swiftly, or your family will perish.'**_

"But what can I do!?" Tsuna yelled in reply, not looking up at Giotto. "Usually I can protect them with Reborn's help with the Dying Will Bullet, but he's not here!"

A firm hand pulled Tsuna back to his feet and forced him to look at Giotto, face to face. Scared amber orbs looked into fierce gold nuggets and locked focus with each other._** 'Decimo.' **_Giotto breathed intensely._** 'Answer me this: Can you trust me with the lives of your family?'**_

"What?"

_**'Answer me!'**_

"Uh...Y-yes...I think I can..."

**_'Very well...you entrusted me with your family, so I can do what is necessary.'_**

In a swift motion, Giotto's right hand clasped onto the top half of Tsuna's face, burning intensely with its Dying Will Flame. As much as Tsuna tried to resist, his body began to feel strangely energized, as if the flame on Giotto's X-glove was strengthening him.

**_'As long as you instill trust in me, I shall do everything in my power to protect those dear to you. But in order to do so, I must use a corporeal vessel...as long as you instill trust in me, your body in my hands shall be my instrument of Justice and Retribution.'_**

A moment passed before Tsuna's amber eyes became blank and distant, before suddenly brightening to a golden yellow similar to Giotto's.

_**'****May the test begin.'**_

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Gokudera struggled against Alejandro's grip, but the pain in his leg was making him lose concentration, and his head was already beginning to spin from the blood loss. "Let...go..."

**_"Not on your life, half-breed..." _**Alejandro growled, pressing the barrel into Gokudera's skull and gripping the silver-haired guardian's throat. **_"Not when I'm this close to my dream."_**

Even though he could barely concentrate, Gokudera's ears picked up a faint groaning of wood, but his captor didn't hear it. The groaning could only mean one thing: Tsuna was awake.

"_Juu...Juudaime...nigerunda!_" He tried to yell, but his throat was constricted by Alejandro's hand. (_nigerunda: _get out of here)

_**"Heh, whatever Japanese you're splattering now won't help you..." **_The armed suit leered with glee, but then stopped leering when he felt a hand on his shoulder. both sets of eyes turned to what looked like a woolen mitten-covered hand grasping Alejandro's shoulder.

"_Juudaime!_" Gokudera called, but stopped when he saw Tsuna's face. The young man looked as if he was in Dying Will Mode, but his eyes were far to golden, and far too _fierce_ than every other time Gokudera saw Tsuna in it.

_**"To harm the Family is a crime punishable by Death." **_Tsuna declared stoically in perfect Italian.

_**"What the...? I thought you didn't know Italian..." **_Alejandro managed to say before Tsuna ignited his X-gloves and sent a fist right into his face.

Tsuna followed up the punch with an uppercut to the chin, toppling the gunman to the ground. **_"You thought wrong, Traitor." _**

"_Juudaime...?_" Gokudera breathed as he watched Tsuna completely throttle Alejandro mercilessly. "What's happened to you?!"

Timoteo was finally able to stand and witnessed the scene occuring being his four poster. Tsuna was standing over an unconscious Alejandro, holding up a flaming X-glove, which looked like it was charging up a fireball.

_**"Burn as your punishment, Traitor to the Family."**_

_**"Don Giotto, stop please!" **_Timoteo cried out before Gokudera grappled Tsuna, causing the flames to dissipate.

"_Juudaime, stop! This isn't like you!_"The silver-haired teen pleaded.

Not struggling, Tsuna relaxed, allowing Gokudera to let go of him. _**"Goku...dera...was it?" **_Tsuna began, turning his amber-turned-golden eyes over his shoulder.

Gokudera nodded, wary of Tsuna's change in character. "Yes...you're not _Juudaime_, are you...?"

_**"No, but fret not, your Boss is safe...I am just using his body to deal out my punishment to this Traitor."**_

"Well, the _akambo _was right_..._" a new voice drawled.

The three forms snapped to the doorway, where Hibari was leaning against, flashing his still bloody tonfas.

"It seems that the herbivore grew fangs..."

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

**And here you go, probably the longest chapter to date. I don't know how I'm going to follow this up though...but whatever.**

**Until next update!  
**


	6. Intervention

**I am not Akira Amamo, so I do not own KHR.  
**

**Thank you all for your support, those who are reading this. I just deeply wish that my other stories got this support.**

**With that said, Enjoy the latest update.**

**

* * *

**

**Also, my I add this note to avoid confusion: To differentiate Giotto's dialogue and Italian dialogue, for Giotto's dialogue, only the words are embolded and italicized. Quotation and Punctuation marks (**question marks, exclamation points, (") and ("), periods, commas, etc.**) are not. **

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* * *

**

**o.O.o.O.o**

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter 6:  
**

_**Intervention**_

**o.O.o.O.o

* * *

**

Bullets were whizzing past like an enraged swarm of killer bees, guns blasting in every direction, deafening booms left and right. Chaos reigned in the remains of the Vongola estate's main grounds. Normally, this wouldn't last long because of the Vongola's impeccable security, but taking into account the incident with Lambo and the rocket bombs, and Hibari taking down a good quarter of the security's best men, today they were ill-prepared for a full-on assault by a rival family. Those inside after the Lambo incident were cut off from joining the fray by the special lock down system that was triggered when the invading family planted C4 onto the large oak doors and triggered the mechanism, causing two inch steel slabs to come down and cover every window and outer door of the estate.

Fortunately for the Vongola side, they had quite a few men outside in the fray already, doing whatever they could to keep the invaders at bay, one of them being Reborn. Needless to say, seeing an_ Arcobaleno_ on your enemy's side is quite an intimidating sight for the invaders, but they were not completely deterred, judging from the current skirmish.

'_How long has it been since I was able to feel this alive...?' _The infant hit man asked himself as he downed a dozen men with a few shots from his Leon-Pistol, before nimbly leaping up into the safety of the trees, hiding from the incoming wave of bullets. '_I never felt it in Namimori, being forced into the background...Of course, I'd never go against Don Timoteo...but still..._'

Leon reverted back to his usual form for a minute, and looked up at his master with his large unblinking orange eyes.

"You too, Leon?" Reborn asked.

The chameleon blinked once, leaped into the air, and transformed into a scoped sniper rifle. Once Reborn held the Leon-sniper in his hands, he immediately set to work, aiming and shooting at the invaders within his range.

'_...it's great to be back on the job I was trained to do._'

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

The air was think with tension. Not a soul dared to breathe. A single bead of sweat dropping onto the bloodstained carpet was amplified a hundredfold in the intricately designed room. All eyes focused on the two forms of Kyoya Hibari and Tsunayoshi Sawada as the two circled each other, each pair of eyes sizing the other up.

"So, this is your true identity..." Hibari breathed excitedly, taking a slow, ominous step towards the brunet boy. "You've shown your fangs at last...good. I've grown bored of the arrogant herbivores downstairs." He brushed the blood off his tonfas with a single swipe against his black pants. "Finally, prey worthy of my teeth."

Tsuna kept his focus on Hibari's steady form, his brown-turned-gold eyes narrowed warily. "Are you challenging me?" He asked in reply as he flexed his gloved fingers.

Hibari readied himself into a stance, tonfas in front, clouded gray eyes narrowed, mouth curled into a smirk. "There can only be one dominant carnivore."

Tsuna readied himself into his own stance. "So be it." He declared as he ignited his gloves and brought one of them forward. The Dying Will Flames left streaks in the air as his hands moved into position. "Bear not a grudge against me should I take your life."

At this, Gokudera had seen enough. "_Juudaime_, Stop! He's not an enemy!" He yelled, limping in between the two combatants, holding his wound, his other hand held up in front of Tsuna.

Golden-brown eyes eased their glare, but X-gloved hands did not move from their spots. "Not an enemy, you say...?"

"Move, herbivore." Hibari snapped curtly and slammed the long end of one of his tonfas into Gokudera's neck, effectively knocking him out. Steel orbs glared daggers at their golden-brown opponents as Hibari breathed his next sentence in little more than a whisper. "Come...fight with me."

In the blink of an eye, Hibari's form rushed at Tsuna, tonfas ready to strike. Immediately, the brunet nimbly dodged the tonfas coming at him, grabbed both of Hibari's hands and forced the black haired guardian to drop his weapons by tightening his grip. "You're not in my league..." He whispered, glancing into the shocked, clouded steel eyes of his captive. When golden-brown eyes chanced upon the Cloud Vongola Ring on Hibari's right hand, Tsuna let go immediately. "I see. That is what Gokudera meant." He stated. "You've no quarrel with me, Cloud Guardian."

Hibari's eyes snapped to Tsuna, maniacally gleaming with blood lust. "What did you say?!" He breathed, snatching up his tonfas in a single sweep. "Are you _pitying _me?!"

"Never, Guardian." Tsuna replied. "I would never turn down such a avid opponent without proper reason. I wish to fight you seriously, indeed I do. But unfortunately, this room could never hope to provide us an ample stage. And as I have heard, there is a bigger battlefield that requires my attention."

Tsuna knelt down by Gokudera's side as the silver-haired Guardian regained consciousness, helped him up, and proceeded to walk out the door. "If you wish to fight me, Cloud Guardian, then for now, fight by my side."

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Back downstairs, Yamamoto and Ryohei were busy watching the fight going on outside on a large screen that came down from the ceiling. The previous explosion that had activated the estate's lock down trigger had trapped them all inside, and seeing the possibility of breaking free futile, had reluctantly obliged to just observe the battle waging outside.

"_Kuso!_" Ryohei yelled angrily, shaking his bandaged fist at the screen. "_We're stuck in here while an extreme fight is going on outside!"_

_**"The Sun Guardian's right!" **_One mafioso to Yamamoto's left yelled in support.

_**"We should be out there, defending our Famiglia!" **_Another exclaimed, waving his pistol in the air for emphasis.

"But, what can we do?" Yamamoto asked Ryohei, taking no heed of the increasingly rowdy Mafiosi crowd. "If we could even _make_ an opening anywhere, they'd just storm in and do even more damage!" This cruel but true fact quelled the rest of the onlooking crowd of mafiosi.

_**"That is a chance we have to take to claim victory in this battle." **_A voice from behind declared stoically.

The crowd turned away from the screen to see Tsuna, Gokudera, Hibari and Don Timoteo in the main hallway, weapons at the ready.

"Tsuna? When did you learn Italian?" Yamamoto asked, but seeing the serious look on Tsuna's face, quieted down. '_Whoa...Tsuna's different..._' The baseball swordsman thought. '_And I can almost see the killer instinct coming off him...Whatever happened to Tsuna, it can't be good._' True, the boy's usually child-like face had drastically hardened, even more so than when he was under the influence of the Dying Will Bullet. And those eyes...those golden-brown eyes...It was if they had seen the gravest battles and had shirked them off without a care.

Looking away from Tsuna, his attention turned to Gokudera, who was leaning on Don Timoteo for support, a bloodied bandage around his left leg, then to Hibari, who was glaring at Tsuna's back with dangerously narrowed eyes.

_**"Everyone." **_Tsuna began, igniting his X-gloves and taking to the air over the crowd, hovering in place. _**"Here is our battle strategy. I will create an opening in the main door's barricade, and as soon as I break out, I will lure all the enemy forces away from it, giving you all a chance to join the fight. No one is to be left inside except those injured and those who cannot fight in close quarters. Marksmen and sharpshooters, follow Gokudera and create an opening on the second floor to provide aerial assistance. Do I make myself clear?"**_

A moment passed as Tsuna finished explaining his plan, but soon after, cheers erupted from the crowd below.

_**"As expected from the Vongola Decimo!"**_

_**"We're sure to win now!"**_

_**"They won't have a chance to escape!"**_

Tsuna then flew off back into the main hall, with the majority of the crowd following him. Landing next to the barricaded door, He raised his gloved hands to it, bracing himself. _**"Everyone stand back!"**_ He yelled as he sent a massive beam of flame into the metal, making it turn red hot.

Inside the foyer, the Guardians, along with some other Mafiosi, reunited.

"Gokudera!" Yamamoto called, running over to his silver-haired friend. "What happened to you?"

The Storm Guardian pushed away from Don Timoteo, only to stumble into Yamamoto's awaiting arms. "It was...an insider ambush..." He breathed, gasping back the numbing pain in his leg. "I got shot in the leg, but the _Kyuudaime _patched up the wound...I'll be fine...just go and help _Juudaime_."

Yamamoto nodded, and looked over his shoulder to Ryohei's direction. "Let's have our share of the fight huh, _senpai_?" Except the sun guardian wasn't there. "_Senpai?_"

"_**Maximum Cannon**!!_" Came Ryohei's bellow and a loud clang of metal afterward. "_Come on then, Sawada! I bet I can punch my way through this door before you burn it down with that extreme blowtorch of yours!_"

At that, Yamamoto just shrugged and smiled, lke he usually did. "Yet another level to Tsuna's intricate game." He said, hoisting his Katana over his shoulder and walking to the hall. "Who knew he could be_ that _creative...?"

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

There was almost no hope for the defending side. No matter how many enemies they take down, there always seemed to be more...it was as if they were cockroaches...if you crush one, you always see more right around the corner. And this was making the Vongola guards lose hope. Even with an _Arcobaleno_'s help, they were growing weaker with each successive wave.

Guido Esteofani ducked behind a large marble statue, sending a few shots back with his pistol. He had no idea where his comrades were, but he knew they were either still fighting, or dead from fighting too much. And to top it all off, he was cornered by a half dozen enemy Mafiosi. '_How could this have happened...??_' He pondered, nimbly taking out the now empty magazine and reloading his gun, flinching as a stray bullet ricocheted against the corner, sending a fragment of schrapnel into his face. '_Just a couple of weeks out of training and now this...?!_'

A faint hissing directed his attention to the now sealed off gate to the Vongola Mansion. From what he could see, a spot on the wall was glowing red, and brightening with each minute.

'_What in the name of..._' He thought, risking being shot by tumbling toward a large potted plant that was a few feet away from the statue, again dodging ricochets and ducking under bullets. '_Don't tell me they've gotten inside?!_'

Just then, without any warning, a loud _clang _of metal sounded off from the other side of the steel wall, and a large, two feet long, three feet diameter dent appeared in the wall.

_**"**_**Santa Maria**_**!! What just happened there?!" **_A rival mafioso exclaimed, halting his fire and emerging from his hiding place.

A couple of his comrades also emerged, gawking at the now dented wall. _**"An explosion maybe?" **_Another suggested, keeping his rifle ready.

_**"Just in **_**that**_** particular spot...??" **_Yet another retorted, inching closer to the wall.

The hissing on the red spot next to the large dent grew more and more audible, making the onlooking mafiosi cautious and their guns primed.

As they moved closer, the reddish glow around the spot dimmed and disappeared. Guido close this moment to inch his way past the enemy mafiosi, and quietly retreat to look for his comrades. Not noticing their fled target, one of the Mafiosi placed his ear next to the door.

_"There, it's just thin enough...Do you think you can punch your way through this...?"_

_"__**Of course I can, Sawada! Stand back and watch this...**_**Maximum Cannon**_**!!**__" _

What happened next could be described as something out of a cartoon. The spot they were so close to blew apart, the shrapnel that managed to remain attached to the wall rolled back like banana peels, and a black, gray and brown blur came shooting out of the newly-created hole, sending the enemy Mafiosi flying backward.

Tsuna slowed down a few feet away, hovering in the air, looking around at the battlefield. The rival mafiosi were all knocked unconscious, their comrades just beginning to notice Tsuna, and the surviving Vongola have begun to fight with a renewed fervor. The airborne brunet looked down to the Mafiosi clambering out of the hole and took a breath. _**"Everyone...to battle!"

* * *

**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

It has been an approximate two hours since the battle had began...and the passage of time was probably what the Vongolan side had needed all along...fatigue and morale loss had set in for the rival side, and the Vongolan mafiosi were rebelling with increasing force. Little by little, the border between the opposing forces drew back, further from the Vongola fortress estate.

_**"Come on!"**_ A _Caporegime_ commanded, getting more gunfire as his response. **_"We've almost defeated them!"_**

He left the front line to recuperate in his tent. What he had just said was a complete lie of course, and that the Vongola had quite successfully turned the tables and had driven them into a corner. But, they didn't need to know that. They were nothing but soldiers, 'nothing mixed with nil', as they say...or _used_ to say. It didn't matter, because as far as he was concerned, they were expendable.

This was what the original Mafiosi had thought, the Mafiosi who had operated in the early days of the Mafia underground. This was why they were fighting with the Vongola in the first place._La Famiglia de Ophilan_ was a very old one, dating back to the days even before any mafiosi have even _heard_ of the name 'Vongola'. They were on the lap of luxury, at the seat of power, when all of a sudden, one man changed that all. A lone man, in his early twenties, and a small group of six, overthrew _La Famiglia de Ophilan_ and established themselves onto the throne, instilling this _obsurd _philosophy that all members of the_ Famiglia, _even the most _lowly _of _soldato, _mattered...

Behind the mass of gunfire, the_ Caporegime _was going over the casualties, entering a makeshift medical camp which could amongst be mistaken for a mortuary. **_"What're our losses?"_** He bellowed over the noise of the gunfire to a medical Mafiosa tending to the open wound of felled mafioso.

_**"Twenty Soldato killed, sir." **_She replied whilst stitching up the wound with surgical thread, not even bothering to look at her superior.**_ "Fifty more injured, twenty of them unable to rejoin the battle."  
_**  
**_"Understood."_** The _Caporegime_ replied, nodding and returning to his tent, his headquarters and base of operations. Inside were a small number of wounded _soldato_, awaiting their captain.

**_"Sir, what do we do now?"_** One of them asked, nursing his bound, blood soaked leg. **_"They were right, the Vongola Fortress is impregnable!"_**

The captain grunted in response as he swiftly searched through the chests in the room. A few moments of this passed, before the captain straightened out, holding a small ring of keys in his hand.

**_"Can you all still fight??"_** He asked them, a somewhat ominous gleam glittered in his gray eyes.

**_"I think I still can, sir." _**Answered another _soldato _with a bandaged shoulder. **_"But I don't think I can last long..."_**

**_"Can you drive?"_**

_**"Sir?"**_

_**"Come with me...it is time to launch our secret weapon."

* * *

**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

Rocketing over the battlefield, the lone Tsuna soared high and scanned the area. From his vantage point, he could make out the positions and the possible routes that each team could make in order to gain the upper hand in this bloody stalemate, all the while reminding himself of a very trivial matter...

'**_It feels so odd..._**' Giotto thought, taking a breath. '_**This feels so familiar...and yet so different at the same time.**_' He shifted his position a bit so as not to lose balance, and looked down at his right hand, admiring the steel-adorned black leather of Tsuna's X-glove. '**_To be able to fight the way I used to...not having to adapt to a foreign weapon...this boy is truthfully the one I have been waiting for..._**'

An explosion from down below stirred the spirit-possessed Tsuna back into focus. Whirling around in the air, he immediately zoomed toward the source of the explosion.

Down below on Earth, a couple of Vongola mafiosi were limping away from the bast site when Tsuna touched back down on the ground.

_**"What happened?" **_He demanded, golden-brown eyes narrowed with both worry and suppressed rage.

The two mafiosi were shocked at their boss-in-training speaking to them in their native language, but answered promptly afterward._** "We were opening fire on our enemies when out of nowhere, an explosive landed in our midst, sir!" **_Reported one mafiosi, leaning on his companion for support. _**"I don't think we can keep this up much longer, sir..."**_

Tsuna gritted his teeth. **_"Do what you can, and do not, under any circumstance, push yourself too far. I need you all back alive."_**

The two soldiers saluted to the best of their ability. **_"Yes, Don Vongola Decimo."_**

Letting the two limp to safety, Tsuna leapt to the sky again, in search of the possible source of the grenade. But before he could break through the canopy of trees, a shadow within the branches caught his attention.

**_"Show yourself!" _**The young boy commanded, aiming his X-glove at a shaded patch of branches. **_"I am warning you, do not try my patience."_**

The figure chuckled lightly before revealing himself through the branches. _**"I would never dream of it..." **_He said before steadying himself on a thick branch. _**"...after all..."**_

Reborn, smiling a little, took off his fedora and bowed towards Tsuna, the green sniper rifle in his hands transformed back into Leon as he did so. **_"Why would I cross you, Don Vongola Primo...?"_**

A smile crept onto the young boy's lips as he returned the bow to the infant hit man. _**"Ah, you must be Reborn. Timoteo has told me a lot about you..."**_

_**"Thank you for remembering me, Don Primo."**_ Reborn replied. _**"**__**I hope that my student is up to your standards. Tsuna has been quite a handful to train."  
**_

_**"I truly wish that we could talk at leisure, Reborn...but for now I must take my leave..."**_ Tsuna readied himself to rocket into the sky again, but before he did, he turned back to the _Arcobaleno _one last time. _**"But to reply to your last question, the young Decimo is performing quite to my liking."**_

Tsuna rocketed away into the sky, leaving a smiling Reborn behind him. Once at his desired altitude, Tsuna resumed his evaluation of the battlefield, all the while thinking. '**_Truly invigorating, this feeling...to be alive again..._**'

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Back in the Vongola estate, Gokudera and two other mafiosi had just finished blasting the last hole in one of the windows that they had chosen as their vantage points. They had established points in each corner of the estate, and on every balcony and window they could gain access to. So far, their efforts have helped a great deal in preventing any straggling enemy forces from ambushing their comrades. Gokudera tried with all of his ability, but his aim worsened with his leg wound, and just now, he had accidentally launched his dynamite into a cluster of Vongola mafiosi.

Worrying what else he might aim at, the two mafiosi who were with him forced Gokudera to stand down and hand over his dynamite, handing him over to a medical mafioso to tend to his injury.

"I'm fine, I tell you! Now, _let go of me_!" The silver haired teen hissed, flinching at the pain from the anesthetic that the medic had sprayed on the open wound.

_**"Fine, my foot!" **_The medic retorted, tightening his grip._** "Just hold still and I can let you get back into battle!"**_

Gokudera slumped back into the cushions used to prop him up and crossed his arms. "_Just hurry up._" He growled.

The medic nodded and resumed his work, leaving Gokudera to pout. Annoyed, Gokudera watched the screen that showed the battle outside. There were screens in every major room in the estate, and right now they were in one of the conference rooms, just above the main entrance. The Vongola forces were just about a few kills away from victory, when something large, armored and _fast_ caught Gokudera's eye.

"_What the hell is that?!_" He exclaimed, pointing to the screen, catching the others' attention.

_**"**_**Dios Mio**_**!"**_

_**"How did they gain THAT sort of weaponry?!"

* * *

**_

**o.O.o.O.o**

_**"What the--?"**_

_**"Who let children onto the battlefield?"**_

_**"Don't be fooled, that's one of the Vongola Guardians!"**_

Yamamoto sped past the first two out before they even heard the last sentence. So far, he had taken down twenty or so mafiosi with his trusted katana, knocking them out with the blunt edge. Ever since the Ring battles, he'd become quite accustomed to having a katana instead of a baseball bat slung over his shoulder, and since his father had taken back his _Shigure Kintoki_** (1)** in order to have a custom made sling fitted into the scabbard, he was using an old katana that his father used before when in training. "Man, you guys really know how to get into a game..." He commented, hoisting his katana over his shoulders as the former two mafiosi fell over, unconscious. "Well, it's just about game over for you guys..."

**_"I don't care what you just said," _**The mafioso barked, apparently not understanding a word that Yamamoto said. **_"But mark my words, Vongola brat...this is your final hour!"_**

The lone enemy retreated back into the woods just as the aftershock from a nearby explosion knocked the Japanese swordsman off his feet. Rubbing the back of his head gingerly, Yamamoto shifted hs body into a sitting position and looked up through the branches up at the sky, where he saw Tsuna rocket past.

"For a guy who does poorly in school, Tsuna really knows how to throw a good war game." The Rain Guardian chuckled to himself, using his katana to stand up. However, as soon as the words left his lips, even more rumbling sent him stumbling back down into the earth again.

It was probably a good thing though, as a large four-barreled machine gun poked out of the foliage right where his head would have been.

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Nearby where Yamamoto was, the enemy forces suddenly stopped fire and pointed up the sky. **_"Caporegime, look up there!"_** They yelled, as their target whistled past them in a blur.

_**"Oh no, those are Dying Will Flames..." **_Their captain muttered, before he aimed his rifle skyward. _**"That's the Vongola Decimo! Shoot him out of the sky!"**_

Like a fireworks display, bullets shot skyward at Tsuna, forcing him to weave in and out in a serpentine fashion, making his way toward the group of enemies to fire off a blast from his X-gloves. Just as he was about to harness his flame into one of his gloves, he noticed an ominous glint in the corner of his eye. Heeding his Hyper Intuition, he rolled off to the side just as a stream of bullets shot past him. He turned to the direction of the glint, and there he saw a large jeep rolling up to him, and mounted on that jeep was a massive, four barreled, belt-fed gatling machine gun, with its four-barreled muzzle aimed directly at him.

**_"Reinforcements!!"_** An enemy mafiosi exclaimed with glee._** "Just in time!"**_

Tsuna gritted his teeth and rocketed towards the jeep, but the shots were following his every move relentlessly. '**_Cornered..._**' Giotto growled mentally, dodging another stream of bullets fired at him, some of them ripping up his sleeve as he narrowly rolled out of the crossfire. '**_I need a diversion..._**' As luck would have it, a deity must have been listening because just as he thought of it, he spotted Yamamoto sneakily creeping behind the jeep, about to mount into it, katana in hand. '**_I had better assist that young man and play along..._**'

The young teen continued his approach, snaking in and out of the bullets coming at him. Below the Tenth-to-be, the Vongola troops had made their enemies retreat, and are making their way towards the jeep, guns at the ready. The jeep's gunmen were apparently so focused on Tsuna, that they kept most of their attention skyward, and were oblivious to the approaching mafiosi.

Yamamoto and a couple of mafiosi had positioned themselves for an ambush, and one of them raised his sunglasses in Tsuna's direction, signaling that they were ready for a signal.

The airborne teen gave a minute nod, and feinted another head-on assault toward the jeep, but before they could pull the trigger, the gunmen were met with the barrels of pistols aimed at their faces, and the gleaming tip of a katana's blade.

"Nobody move." Yamamoto commanded, a somewhat mocking grin on his face. "We've won."

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

The war was finally over, and the Vongola had once again emerged victorious. Now, they were in the Vongola grounds, with the remaining invading mafiosi tied up in a circle, surrounded by armed Vongola mafiosi.

Alejandro, beaten, burned and bruised, was thrown into the crowd, nearby his brother, who was bloodied and bandaged by a Vongola medic.

**_"Why'd you even bother to patch me up!?"_** He yelled angrily, shame gleaming in his eyes. **_"We're enemies, aren't we?!"  
_**  
**_"That may be true..."_** Tsuna replied, landing in front of him, as the other mafiosi made space and bowed as his feet touched the earth.**_ "But I do not want unneccessary deaths to tarnish the Vongola name."_**

This reply angered his conversant even further, so much in fact that he had to be restrained from lunging at Tsuna. **_"Don't give me that bull! Death and the Mafia go hand in hand, you brat! It has been, and it always will be! It's because of you the entire Mafia has gotten soft! We need a ruling famiglia with an iron fisted-rule! One that upholds tradition and preserves it! Not spit on it!"_**

In a fit of rage, and powered by adrenalin, he was able to break free from his bounds, and his restrainers, and wrap his hands around Tsuna's neck. X-gloved hands began to claw at the invader's arms as Tsuna gasped for breath. **_"If I am going to Vendicare, I want to at least see your suffering face!"_**

It was a reflex more than anything, but still, the sadness gleamed in Tsuna's golden brown eyes. His right glove glowed with flame, and it clasped itself on his attacker's face, holding on tight. As the grip on Tsuna's neck lessened, so did the grip on his attacker's face. Finally, the attacking mafioso let go, and fell over backward, his face red hot with burns.

The medics swarmed all around the mafioso and the others crowded over their young successor. **_"Don Decimo! Are you injured in any way?!"  
_**  
Tsuna shook his head and turned away from the now tended-to invader. _**"Yes...I'm not injured."**_ He started to walk away, toward his Guardians, who were also being tended to. **_"Make sure he's not causing any more unneccessary bloodshed until the Vendicare agents come..."_**

But, as he was about to approach Gokudera and Don Timoteo, he fell down on one knee, grabbing his head. He let out a small hiss of pain and scrunched up his eyes. The Guardians immediately began to run to Tsuna's side to the extent that their injuries allowed him to, but before they could touch him, he sprang up again and ran off into the forest.

The other Mafiosi attempted to run after him, but they were stopped by Don Timoteo's ignited scepter. **_"This is a private matter...I'm sorry. But soldato are forbidden to know about this."_**

With that said, Timoteo allowed Gokudera to run, or rather limp, after his close friend and boss.

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

White, nothing but endless white. It was as if he was inside a cloud, nothing but wisps and fog all around him and yet...

Tsuna kept looking, even though he had tried a few times before with no success. It was all too strange for him. First was Timoteo pointing a gun at him, then seeing the long-dead Giotto Vongola appear out of nowhere from a small tongue of flame, then seeing the very same Giotto Vongola in this place and talking with him, and now this. The blond Mafia boss is nowhere to be found and the Tenth-to-be is all alone, in a white lump of nothingness.

He held his head in his hands and tried to remember what happened, but it was all a blur. After he had felt the energizing heat from Giotto's X-glove on his face, his mind had strangely become blank, and the warming sensation spread throughout his entire body. After that, he had woken up in this white nothingness, all alone.

"Where am I?" Tsuna asked into the wind. Knowing he wont get an answer. He then looked at his hands, which were hidden in his X-gloves. Strange though, since he was not in Dying Will mode, yet his X-gloves weren't in their usual guise of wool mittens.

'_Hmm..._' Tsuna wondered, gathering his thoughts. '_What was it that Giotto-san did to do that window thing again...?_' It couldn't hurt to try, right?

He raised his X-gloved hand up and waved it around, and sure enough, the white mist parted at his command, giving him a view of what was apparently the outside world.

Tsuna couldn't believe his eyes.

In the 'window', he could see a large group of battered, and bloodied mafiosi, which he surmised were the invaders, looking at him landing right in front of them.

"_What the_--!? That can't be me!" He exclaimed, yet kept watching. He watched as the 'Tsuna' in the 'window' began to converse with an enraged Mafiosi in Italian, and then as his doppelganger looked someplace else, the saw that same man leap up, break free from his restraints, and strangle the 'Tsuna' in the 'window'.

Immediately, his own breathing became stangled, and Tsuna collapsed, gasping for breath. As he was down on his hands and knees, desperately trying to get air in his lungs, he noticed one of his hands glow with bright orange flame, and as the flame intensified, his breathing became less restricted.

Tsuna got back on his feet and looked to the window, and watched with shocked amber eyes as the man staggered back and fell over, his face completely burned. It was then he noticed the other 'Tsuna's golden-brown eyes. Like a switch, everything fell into place.

Somehow...he had switched places with Giotto. He was out there, in _his_ body, and Tsuna was stuck here in the white...possibly...forever.

"_Giotto-san_!" Tsuna yelled into the white, scared out of his wits. "_Giotto-san, if you can hear me, please stop! Don't do this anymore! Take me back_!!"

The brunet boy quickly regretted his words when his head began to throb with pain, as if someone hit him upside the head with a sledgehammer. Tsuna was so doubled up in pain, that he didn't notice the white around him began to darken to a steel grey. But what he did notice was the voice that seemed to ring from nowhere.

'**_Decimo_**?' The voice, which was Giotto's, asked. '**_What is wrong_**?'

Tsuna couldn't reply, his head in too much pain. He curled up, holding his head in his X-gloved hands. '_Take me back, Giotto-san, please...don't leave me here_!' He thought desperately, his fingers digging into his scalp.

'**_It was never my intention to leave you in that realm, Decimo_**.' Giotto replied soothingly. '_**But if that is what you desire, I will return you to your rightful place**_.'

The graying mist around Tsuna turned into pitch black and parted, letting Tsuna sink into it and disappear.

* * *

**o.O.o.O.o**

Tsuna ran off into a deserted clearing into the forest, still holding his head, when he stopped, dropped to his knees, and started to cough. The coughs became more ragged when suddenly, like a mythical dragon, from out of Tsuna's mouth burst a small ball of flame, which floated away from him and settled in midair while Tsuna's body fell over.

Gokudera limped into the clearing just in time to see that small tongue of flame grow in side, gain shape, and turn into the form of a man with the same hairstyle as Tsuna, only blond, wearing a pinstripe suit. As the silver haired teen scanned the strange man over, his emerald eyes widened when he saw nothing where the man's feet would be.

'_A ghost_?!' Gokudera thought, shocked. '_No_ **_wonder_** _Juudaime was acting weird_!'

Before the Storm Guardian could move, Tsuna began to stir. Mitten-adorned hands pushed against the ground as Tsuna propped himself up into a sitting position, the expression on his face of utmost shock.

"_**I'm sorry, Decimo**_." Giotto said smoothly, an apologetic look in his golden eyes. "**_Normally I would have told you_**,**_ but the situation was too urgent_**.**_ I apologive for scaring you_**."

Tsuna didn't reply, but just stared at Giotto with wide amber eyes, panting. The blond ghost began to move closer to Tsuna, extending a silk-gloved hand to place on his successor's shoulder. At this, Gokudera made his move. He limped out from his hiding place, and hobbled his way towards the two.

"_Get away from him, you spectre of the dead_!" The silver-haired boy growled, waving two sticks of dynamite, tied in the shape of a cross, in Giotto's direction. "_Go back to the underworld where you belong_!"

Giotto recoiled at the sight of the silver-haired boy, in more astonishment than fear or effect of the makeshift cross. "**_Gokudera_**?" He breathed, raising an eyebrow.

"_Get away from the Juudaime_!" He yelled, positioning himself in between the two Vongola bosses. "_Get back_!"

"That's enough, Gokudera." A new voice said sternly. Three heads turned to the direction of the new voice as Timoteo made his way out of the underbrush, as Gokudera had done. "Put the cross down, or I will have to charge you for raising weaponry against your boss."

"What?!" Gokudera looked to the ghost, and then Tsuna, to their gloves, and there, he understood.

"So _you're_ Giotto Vongola?" The silver haired boy asked, dropping his dynamite cross and hastily getting down on his hands and knees, bowing rapidly. "_Forgive my ignorance, **Don Primo**_!" He yelled into the grass.

Giotto nodded for him to stop, and continued to Tsuna's side. The young brunet, still hyperventilating, didn't say anything, but also didn't reject Giotto's close proximity. "**_Decimo_**..." He breathed.

"Thank you for saving us, _Don Giotto_." Timoteo said with a bow. "Without your quick thinking, who knows what could've been..."

"What...happened...?" Tsuna finally asked, breaking the conversation as he got to his feet. His amber eyes never left Giotto's form, even when golden eyes turned away. "_Giotto-san_..."

Timoteo took this time to walk away. "Tsunayoshi, I'll explain everything tomorrow, but for now you must rest."

With that, the ninth Don walked away, leaving the clearing, followed only by the stares of three sets of eyes: one confused amber, another suspicious emerald, and the last of stoic knowing gold.

* * *

**(1) **_Shigure Kintoki _- This is supposed to be the name of Yamamoto's _Shigure Souenryuu_ katana, but I have doubts about it's proper name. If this is incorrect, please alert me and I will make the corrections.

**I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. I will probably take a leave of updating this for a week or so, considering that this one is seven thousand words long, and I am sure that the next one will be even longer.**


	7. Revelation

**I am not Akira Amano, so I do not own KHR.**

**It's a good feeling to write fan fiction again. If anyone asks why I was away from updating, I'd answer 'you try maintaining a scholarship in college…'**

**Regardless, I was really planning to update another story of mine before I worked on this, but lately any and all stimuli I needed to make that first story flow faster has stopped. And the plotline for this particular chapter has already been planned out, along with 'the signs' telling me to update this chapter…'signs' i.e. a show on Discovery Channel called '**_**Ten Commandments of the Mafia**_**'. If you didn't guess yet, **_**yes I'll be referencing that.**_

"_**Giotto**__'__**s dialogue contains regular quotations and bolded and italicized letters much like this sentence**__._"

"_**Italian dialogue will be typed in this format."**_

* * *

**Trial by Dying Will Flame, Chapter VII:**

_**Revelation**_

* * *

In the Sicilian countryside, a local farmer was tending to his crop, quite satisfied with the day's work. He roped up his horse and tied him to a cart, preparing to transport is harvest home before shipping them to the local market. It was dusk now, the sun just barely visible in the darkening blanket of the sky. Yet, he was not scared…no, the word 'scared' or anything of the sort was forever discarded from the vocabulary of the people of this countryside.

The farmer rounded a corner onto a well-worn, beaten path and looked up, setting his eyes upon a gigantic, castle-like villa in the mountainside. The uppermost floor of the villa was the only part visible, and small wisps of smoke were seen trailing from the chimneys. He looked away, smiling. It seemed like a distant memory now, but there was a time that tending to the crops up until dusk was considered suicide because of the financially deprived and desperate bandits all over the hills would feast on a lonely farmer like wolves on a carcass. But now, whoever was living in that large castle kept the dirt paths safe. It was the people living there that kept the markets fair in pricing, the technological help that the local doctors needed at their beck and call, and generally, kept everyone fair and equal.

He pondered for a moment, and remembered that he really didn't know a lot about the people there. All he knew was that they helped them with every little thing in their lives, and all they asked for was absolute privacy…

…that and the fact that the most recurring name whenever the people in the mountainside villa were concerned was '_Vongola_'.

* * *

It was a solemn march back into the still standing Vongola estate. Those who were still able to stand were doing one of three things: hauling a stretcher, helping a not so fortunate comrade, or lugging the confiscated weaponry of the defeated Famiglia. As was the saying: '_To the victor go the spoils_' although, in a Famiglia not as lenient and pacifistic as the Vongola, '_spoils_' would mean the honor of destroying every trace of the defeated. The fallen of their comrades, in a sign of respect and mourning, had been placed side by side, about a foot apart. A couple of Mafiosi had been cleaning their visible wounds, while draping them over with individual black velvet blankets, each with an embroidered Vongola insignia.

Within this silent crowd, those who still required medical attention were to wait in the gardens, their temporary medical camp, as the inside of the estate was undergoing damage control. Guido was one of those requiring attention, as he had busted up two ribs, survived two grazed bullets over his left forearm, and hastily wrapped a tight cloth over a bleeding ricochet wound on his ankle.

As he was being tended to, Guido was able to pick up strains of conversation between his companions, also healing their recently tended to wounds.

"_**It was a miracle that we survived all that…" **_One was saying, cradling his dislocated right arm. _**"Though, I'll be out of combat for a month with this…"**_

"_**T'was thanks to the Don for our victory, my friend." **_Another of their more eloquent comrades replied, grinning. _**"An angel of fire, that's what Don Decimo reminded me of when he flew over the enemies like that."**_

"_**Aye…that he was…**_**" **The first agreed, nodding with a reminiscent look in his eye. _**"With the **__**Decimo's**__** rise to power, La **__**Famiglia**__** Vongola will be at its peak of excellence! Never again will we have to live through a day of this!"**_

His exclamation was met with roaring applause and approval, of which Guido was a part of. To them, the Boss was their warrior-king. To them, the strength of the Family depended on the strength of the Boss. As such, seeing the power that they presumed Tsuna exerted almost assured them that Timoteo made the right choice in the young man. Before they saw him in action, there was doubt on whether the young Japanese boy would succeed their 9th Don so well, as the Mafia Code stated that only those with pure Italian blood can succeed.

At least now, their doubts have been for naught.

Or so they think…

* * *

"Amelia, please take the other Guardians to their respective rooms. I require a moment with Tsunayoshi."

"Of course, Don Timoteo..."

The former continued down the hall with a content looking Hibari, a battered, bruised but smiling Ryohei, a sleeping Lambo and an exhausted Yamamoto, while the latter stopped and turned down the hall, with Tsuna in tow. As the two groups split, Gokudera stood still and looked on at his boss and his boss' predecessor.

Both the Vongola bosses turned and looked at the silver haired guardian. "You may come with us, Gokudera," Timoteo stated knowingly. "Since you already know of what happened to Tsunayoshi…"

Gokudera nodded curtly, before striding up to Tsuna's side like the loyal _**sotto **__**cappo**_ that he seeks to become. His boss, on the other hand, looked stoic and distant. His amber eyes looked dim, as if there was nothing behind them; his stance was gloomy, dragging his feet a little on the carpeting. He kept his focus on the corridor in front of him, ignoring Gokudera giving him worried looks.

The trio stopped in front of a miraculously untouched conference room and entered. The room was cozy, yet ominous all at once. An ornate plush orange wingback chair stood at the head of an oval varnished white oak table. Dotted on either side of this were less ornate black armchairs, three each.

"Have a seat, both of you."

The two young men did as they were told, as Don Timoteo took his seat (as expected) on the plush orange armchair. A moment after everyone was seated; a wisp of orange flame appeared nearby Tsuna's side and hovered next to his head. The amber-eyed brunet did not even flinch, and continued to stare down at the table's surface, dully admiring the intricate collection of lines and whorls. Silence reigned over the trio for a while before Timoteo cleared his throat.

"Tsunayoshi, I know you are in quite a shock but I'm sure Gokudera will agree with me that your silence is frightening for the both of us."

Tsuna perked up, surprise in his eyes. "Hmm?" he said at last, before looking down apologetically. "Ah, sorry."

"Don't be, _Juudaime_…" Gokudera assured him, patting his boss' back.

Timoteo adjusted in his seat, placing his elbows on the varnished wood and rested his head in his hands solemnly, casting a strong, yet soothing stare at his successor. "Now, Tsunayoshi…what had occurred during the battle against _La Famiglia de Ophilan_was the result of the Ignition Ritual…and can very well happen again in the near future."

Tsuna's expression turned to shock when he heard the tail end of Timoteo's sentence. "What?"

Gokudera growled and slammed his fist into the table, casting a protective hand over Tsuna's shoulders. "You mean to tell me that you've turned _Juudaime _into the Primo's personal puppet!?"

Tsuna started shivering at that thought, his rather vivid imagination giving him glimpses of himself ending numerous lives with a demented smile on his face. '_No, please no…please don't tell me that that's true!_'

As if on cue, he heard Giotto's voice coming from the vicinity of the flame, coming just a few inches away from his ear. '_**It is not**_._** It is the reverse actually**_…'

"Reverse? What do you mean…?" He asked the flame, earning a confused look from his Storm Guardian.

"What're you taking about…?" Gokudera asked, cocking a brow at his boss.

"Didn't you hear _Giotto-san_ say that?"

"I didn't hear anything…"

"Gokudera wouldn't be able to hear anything from the flame, Tsunayoshi." Timoteo butted in matter-of-factly. "Only those of his bloodline can hear Don Giotto speak when he is in his flame form."

"About that…" Tsuna perked up, curiously glancing at the flame. "_Giotto-san_ said that the reverse of what _Gokudera-kun_ said was true. What did he mean…?"

"He meant what he meant, Tsunayoshi. The puppet here is actually Don Giotto. The Ignition Ritual instills a small portion of Don Giotto's eternally burning Dying Will Flame into the succeeding boss, and if Don Giotto deems the successor worthy, even though Don Giotto's spirit leaves during the next Ignition Ritual, the ember of flame remains at the beck and call of the Boss. During the Trial process, Don Giotto, along with the flame, can only gain full control of your body if and only if you allow it, Tsunayoshi my boy. As such, Don Giotto is at your full disposal."

Tsuna listened blankly, not understanding a word of what the Ninth Don was saying. "So…what you mean to say is…"

'_**Until I pass my judgment and the trial is complete**_,'Giotto surmised._'__**I**__,__** my knowledge**_,_** my Mafiosi expertise and the full extent of my abilities are at your command**_,_** Decimo**__._'

"_Nani?!_" Tsuna exclaimed, scared out of his wits.

Hearing the news, Gokudera's expression turned from suspicious to ecstatic. "If it's like that then congratulations,_ Juudaime!_ With Don Primo's powers, you'll be the most powerful boss in history!"

Suddenly, Tsuna got the feeling that Giotto was glaring at Gokudera. He turned to the flame, and sure enough, the flame was flickering, sending off embers.

"_A-ano_, _Gokudera-kun_…I think you just made _Giotto-san _angry…"

Gokudera didn't hear a word of it though, as he was lost in thought, a dreamy look in his emerald eyes. "_Juudaime…_the most powerful Mafia Boss in the world…and I as his most trusted right hand…" He rambled, out of it completely. Unbeknownst to them, it was at this that Timoteo slipped out of his seat and left the room, taking one last look at the two boys before closing the door.

Shrugging, Tsuna shrank back into his seat, pondering the thought. Though tempting, he really did not want to be in control of something, particularly something with a lot of power. As always, the root of this is the days he spent as _Dame-Tsuna_, which as far as he is concerned is not over, and his inability to lead. The thought of failure was all too overwhelming for him, and the dread of the people looking to him for advice was too much. This was the underlying reason why he still refused to be a Boss.

He heard a soft chuckle nearby him. Turning to the direction of the laugh, Tsuna noticed the flame had stopped flickering, and was bobbing up and down once again. '_**You fear power**_,_** Decimo**_?' Giotto inquired. '_**Understandable for one so young**_…'

Tsuna didn't reply, shocked. Could it be that Giotto could hear his thoughts?

'_**I ask forgiveness of my intrusion into your private thoughts**_,_** Decimo**_.'

"Ah, no…" Tsuna assured the flame, waving his hands in front of him. "J-just don't catch me off guard like that…"

The flame floated closer to Tsuna's face, causing discomfort in the young man. The flames emanating from the ember began to radiate heat, sending beads of sweat down Tsuna's forehead. "_A-ano…_"

'_**You**_'_**re quite**_…_**submissive for one who is to be a Boss**_…'

"I already told you! I don't _want _to be a Boss!" Tsuna protested, laying his head on the table in defeated frustration. Burying his head in his arms, Tsuna let out a sigh and closed his eyes. '_All this happened because I'm related to you…_' He thought grimly. '_If I wasn't, I probably would not have to be thrust into this ridiculously crazy world of the Mafia…I wouldn't have to have my friends be in danger all the time…I wouldn't have people I barely know want to kill me…_'

As Tsuna lamented his woes, the flame drifted away from the brunet, and chose to float around in the center of the table. '_**So similar**_…' Giotto thought.'_**It is quite unnerving**_…'

"_Juudaime_, where did the _Kyuudaime _go?"

Tsuna looked up at Gokudera's question. Sure enough, Timoteo was gone. "I don't know…" He replied.

'_**Decimo**_…_**it is late**_.' Giotto said sternly. '_**Retire to your rooms**_,_** the both of you**_._'_

With that said, the small flame that was Giotto disappeared. "_Gokudera-kun, Giotto-san _said that we should go to our rooms now."

The silver-haired Guardian nodded earnestly. "Of course, _Juudaime_."

As they exited the room (Gokudera went out first and held the door open) Tsuna found himself mulling over the previous events of the day with more lament than before. '_Why can't I go back to my normal life again…?_'

The two friends walked in silence, up one corridor, then down another with Gokudera leading the way. Tsuna wasn't paying attention to the scenery, although he should have since they had just passed a portrait of _Don Vongola Secondo _for the third time in five minutes.

"_Juudaime, _do you know where the rooms are?" Gokudera asked suddenly. "I think we're lost."

Tsuna looked at his surroundings. '_Oh no…we're lost…_' He thought grimly. He couldn't tell the difference between one set of halls from another.

Then, for the strangest reason, he felt as if he was beginning to float, though he could see that his feet were firmly on the ground. '_**Decimo, if you will allow me**__…_' He heard Giotto say, as he felt a warming sensation in his chest, directly over his heart. '_**I shall guide you both to your rooms**_.'

Too surprised to think, Tsuna just nodded before the warming sensation spread throughout his whole body. Afterwards, he felt his legs move on their own, striding down the left hand corridor.

"_Follow me._" He heard himself say to Gokudera, who hadn't noticed any change and followed without question.

Upon reaching the rooms, both the floating feeling and the warming sensation ended as Giotto lifted his control over his successor. Tsuna unconsciously bent over, as if he was dropped from a short height, and unlike the beginning of the strange experience, Gokudera noticed the reaction.

"Are you alright?" He asked, scanning his friend over with concerned emerald eyes.

Tsuna nodded quickly, not wanting to explain what happened, perhaps worrying his silver-haired friend. "Good night, _Gokudera-kun._"

The brunet Mafiosi trainee closed the door as soon as he ducked his head in and leaned against the sturdy oak door, letting out a sigh of relief.

His mood brightening at the sight of his quarters, Tsuna lazily dropped himself into the elegant four-poster bed, letting out a loud, relaxed grunt as his chest collided with the goose down mattress. "What a bed…" He commented, rolling onto his back and spreading his arms, relishing the softness of the covers. "I could get used to this…"

Giotto's flame appeared nearby the upper right post, casting a warm orange glow over the backdrop of handsome mahogany backboard and dark orange curtains. "_**You should expect more upon your succession of the seat of power**_,_** Decimo**_; '_**Tis a slum dwelling compared to the luxury that the Boss is served**_."

Giotto's conversant didn't reply, instead getting off the bed and reaching for his luggage, intent on changing out of his current attire. Whilst Tsuna busied himself, the blond spirit watched him wordlessly.

Timoteo was right. This boy, destined to be the Boss, was far too young as far as the past Bosses were concerned, yet there was something about the young Tenth that none of the other Bosses ever had. '_His flame,_' Giotto told himself. '_Is by far the calmest, brightest flame I have ever come across…_'

This little factor intrigued Giotto the most because the only flame that can compare to the quality of Tsuna's flame was his very own.

'_Although all the Vongola Bosses possess the same Attribute flame, each flame and how it burns is individual to every person.' _Giotto told himself, reciting what he had discovered in his four hundred years of Mafiosi experience.

'_Some flames burn bright, but soft; others dim, but violent. Some are so violent, that they take on a life of their own; others will only burn the brightest when surrounded by other flames; still others can and will burn all alone, extinguished when in a crowd…_'

The flame drifted off as Tsuna returned, dressed in pale blue pajamas (though without his knowledge, Reborn was able to attach a small patch on the pocket that bore the Vongola crest) and yawning.

'_**I wish thee a pleasant slumber**_,_** Decimo**_.' He greeted, before dimming himself into a tiny little tongue of flame, as if it was coming from an invisible, floating candle.

The Mafioso-to-be pulled back the comforters and settled in, but instead of sleeping, raised his head from the plush cushions. "_Ano ne, Giotto-san…?_" He asked the tiny flame, cautious curiosity in his amber eyes.

The flame grew to a fist's size and wandered closer to the young boy, a few embers flying off as if the flame was casually raising a brow. "_**You inquire something of me at this time**_?_** Do you not require sleep**_?"

Tsuna propped himself into a seated position. "Not at the moment, actually…" He replied, before looking down, deep in thought. "I…" He began, stopping himself afterward.

The flame lowered itself into the foot of the bed, and seemingly rested on the plush comforter. "_**You needn**_'_**t fear me**_,_** Decimo**_. _**My knowledge is to be at your full disposal**_."

Tsuna nodded in reply, braver and calmer now. As since he would be stuck with him for who knows how long, might as well get used to him being around. "I want to know a few things about you and the Vongola. Answer my questions, please."

The flame quietly grew larger and brighter, causing Tsuna to flinch back in surprise. Once the brightness had dimmed, the flame had disappeared and in its place the blond Mafia Boss sat on the corner of the bed, his ever-solemn golden eyes resting on his successor. "_**Of course**_." He replied, raising his hand to his chest in a respectful manner.

Tsuna paused before he spoke. Yes he was braver and calmer now, but still. As since he was in this position now, he wanted to know the story of the Vongola, as there were far too many questions bouncing around in his head, even more so after the events of the day. However, it was quite intimidating to ask the very founder of the Vongola about his (would it be considered past?) life. He took his time, wording his next sentence carefully.

"How old were you when you first became the Vongola Boss?" He blurted out finally, reflexively bracing for verbal reprise.

His ethereal conversant blinked awkwardly for a moment. Taken by surprise by the out-of-the-blue question, there was a pause before he replied. "_**You ask the age of my ascension**_?" He finally asked in reply, before letting out a small scoff. "_**I had but reached the age of twenty**_-_**four when I headed the Vongola**_."

The brunet boy nodded. '_Twenty four…_' He repeated mentally. "So young…?"

"_**You may be astonished**_,_** but in my time you could be considered an old man by the age of forty**_." Giotto countered, casting a regal shrug of his shoulders at Tsuna.

Tsuna nodded in thanks for Giotto's answer. At least now one question was quelled, but another yearned for an answer.

"Were you always a member of the Mafia…?"

Although the question was simple and neutral, it caused Giotto to chuckle softly. "_**Hm**_, _**hm**_, _**hm**_…_**would you believe I was a member of the Law Enforcement before I was a Boss**_?"

"_Nani?!_"

"_**Don**_'_**t believe me if you wish**_,_** but it is true**_._** I was an officer of the law**_,_** a private investigator to be precise**_._** In fact**_,_** my most important mission was to actually bring down the Mafia**_, _**or to be more precise**_,_** I was to bring down the ruling family of the day**_._** But instead it had lured me in and made me one of its own**_,_** as what had happened to you**_,_** I have been told**_."

"Well then, what happened?" Tsuna blurted out. "How did you end up being the Boss of the one thing you were supposed to destroy?"

But as soon as the words were said, Tsuna wished he could take them back. The look in Giotto's golden eyes was too much. Though the facial features were passive, his eyes, which always looked like they shielded a blazing fire, had dimmed dramatically, like the flame behind was extinguished. Giotto looked away, letting out a sigh as he did so. "_**What you ask of me is a sensitive subject**_,_** Decimo**_. _**I beg of you that you need not my answer urgently**_."

"I'm sorry." The brunet said hastily, bowing his head. "I shouldn't have said that."

The blond Boss placed his ghostly hand on his Heir's shoulder and cast him a small, knowing smile. "_**Do not be in guilt for your inquiry Decimo**_. _**It is your right to know of your heritage**_._** But forgive me**_,_** for I cannot tell you the answer this night**_."

His form erupted into flames, choosing to shrink into his flame form again. "_**I ask thee to rest now**_,_** young Decimo**_._** Your injuries need to heal**_." And with that, the ember disappeared, leaving Tsuna to his sleep.

* * *

_It was sunset. An orange hue enveloped the entire countryside, the grass, the mountain range, the estate…_

_Her angelic, porcelain-like skin, her alluring yet gentle brown eyes, her elegant orange-tinted white gown, her ruby red lips…_

_Two forms were lying together on a grassy, flower-sprinkled hilltop overlooking the Sicilian countryside. The two, a man and a woman, were laughing together, the latter carrying a bouquet of white roses._

"_**It's beautiful here isn't it?"**__ The man asked, leaning back into the dew-covered grass, letting out a long sigh of relief. __**"Ah, the bliss we could have…to lie here, untroubled by the hassles of life..."**_

_The woman adjusted her dress before leaning over the man. Her long, curly, amber brown hair fell over her shoulders, tickling her companion's nose.__** "What do you want in this world?"**__ She asked him, raising her brows. _

"_**What do I want?"**__ The man replied with a casual smile, one that reached his eyes, giving them a bright, sparkling glow. __**"I am but a man, and man's desires are as vast as the enveloping sky: fame, fortune, all that and more, my lady."**_

_The lady lay down beside him, letting her hair fall across his chest as she cuddled closer to him, casting an arm over his chest__**. "You misunderstand me, my most loyal of caporégime…" **_

_The man then raised his head to turn to his Lady Boss, his golden eyes wide with curiosity. __**"I beg your pardon, my lady…?"**_

"_**What do you **__**want**__** in **__**this**__** world…?"**__ She asked again, looking back at him. Their eyes, one pair of bright gold, the other scorched amber, locked focus. And with that one look, they conveyed a lot more than words could ever hope to. The man looked a little shocked for some reason. He sat up and adjusted the suit he was wearing. __**"My lady…" **__He began, his gaze shifting. He began stammering slightly, as if finding the words. His companion, in contrast, simply cast a dainty hand on his shoulder, and immediately, he stopped. _

"_**I sense nothing hostile from you, my capo, regardless of your intentions when you came. I also sense that you and I are alike…"**_

_She cast him a smile, warming both his heart and his eyes, rekindling the blazing fire that the latter shielded._

"…_**We, like the Sky, envelop all and accept all, without grudge, bias or prejudice. Because I am like the Sky, I accepted you, knowing who you truly are…and you, like the Sky, came to accept my world, though you come from a place far, **__**far**__** different."**_

_The wind began blowing, buffeting the two on the hill, though it did not bother them. The sun began to disappear into the horizon, the shadows of the night creeping over the two of them. Though, there was something strange. The darkness seemed a little __**too **__dark…as if the darkness was alive…consuming everything. Before long, everything…her dress, her hair, her face…everything was consumed by the darkness._

_It was from within this darkness that the man's voice resonated. Even this echo was gravely weighted down by despair and lamentation._

"_Xie__rra, il mio tesoro, mi perdona per favore__…"_

_As rapidly as the darkness invaded, they withdrew, and within their wake a blazing, roaring inferno took their place. Miles upon miles of fire lit up the horizon, the hillsides alight with burning fury…_

_Within this scorched hillside, the man began to run. Panicked, he stumbled through burning flowers and barren earth until he tripped upon an exposed stone, its rounded shape and rectangular base giving it the foreboding guise of a grave marker…_

_Still on his knees, he hurried to his feet and stumbled further away from the tombstone rock, looking over his shoulder in panic. His gaze was met with a large burst of flame which almost met dead on with his face, had he not ducked the moment it was about to collide._

_Where he was looking at, a black silhouette had emerged from the inferno, its eyes bloodshot and narrowed with unadulterated anger. It raised its right hand, and without warning burst into a piercingly white-orange…could it be considered a flame? It didn't have any characteristics of a burning ember. It was as if the other's raw emotion was condensed into a vastly growing ball of energy. _

_The burning hand was extended to the fleeing man's direction, and with almost laser-like action, a concentrated burst of that energy shot out, and hit the path ahead of him. The man recoiled in shock, before tripping again and falling down to the scorched earth, facing the silhouette._

"_Un giorno la troverò…" Said a voice coming from the silhouette, it voice quivering, like the dancing flames surrounding the source. __"Un giorno la troverò…e lei pagherà il suo tradimento!"_

_His terrified conversant could not reply, but instead balled his fists, which burst into flame as well. Unlike the silhouette's hand though, this flame was the one true example of a burning wisp: bright, radiant and deep orange, with embers flying off of the main body. Opening his palms downward, the man's hands let out two powerful streams of flame, propelling him into the sky._

_The silhouette watched with mixed shock and rising anger as the other flew away. Narrowed eyes shrunk to slits and thin, pale lips parted as he raised his head to the orange, enveloping sky._

"_Vongola, lei il traditore!!!" _

* * *

A scream of terror was the first thing out of Tsuna's mouth as he awoke that day. Drenched in cold sweat, panting as if he had just ran ten miles nonstop, the young brunet clutched his head in his hands, trying to shake the horrifying image of the silhouette in flames out of his mind.

Hurried footsteps sounded and Gokudera burst through the oak doors in a flash, no mean feat considering he was still limping from the bullet wound in his leg. "_Juudaime!_" He called out, in equally scared panic for his friend and Boss. "Is there anything wrong??"

After a few minutes of hyperventilating, Tsuna just shook his head vigorously. "No, no…just a bad dream…" He replied in between pants.

He fell back into the covers, hand on his head still. The dream was still there, as vivid as the daylight around him. The wide rolling plains, first inviting and calm…the black and foreboding, then flooded with flame. Who was that silhouette? Another question added to the whirlwind in his mind. Yet, there was something nagging him at the back of his mind…like somehow…he knew who that silhouette…no…both those men, he knew who they were…

"Oh…" Gokudera began, turning toward the door. "If it's just that then…" He didn't have time to finish, as he fell over before he could.

"_Gokudera-kun!_" Tsuna threw back the covers and rushed to his friend's side, his curiously suspicious dream cast aside for the moment. Turning the silver-haired teen over, the Tenth-to-be finally noticed Gokudera's wound. It seemed as though the wrapping, and the stitching under it, had come undone, and Gokudera passed out from blood loss. Considering that Gokudera's room was one flight of stairs below his own and in the opposite wing of the estate, it was unbelievable how he got here so fast with an open wound.

"_**Your Guardian is truly loyal to you**_." A voice commented from behind the young brunet. Right on cue, the free-floating Wisp of Dying Will Flame appeared from nowhere. Tsuna could make it out in his peripheral vision, but didn't take heed of it, taking Gokudera's shoulder in his arms, preparing himself.

"To the point where he kills himself over nothing…" Tsuna added under his breath, as he tried and failed to lift his fallen friend off the carpet. A few more fruitless tries made Tsuna's worry and early morning exhaustion worsen, as he had taken notice that the carpet was getting redder and redder with each try.

"_**If you will allow me control**_,_** young Decimo**_…" The flame drifted closer to Tsuna's chest, directly over his heart, and once again, the brunet felt that warming sensation from last night. Letting the warmth spread further, that eerie floating feeling washed over him again, as Gokudera's dead weight suddenly felt feather light, easily lifting Gokudera over and onto his shoulder like one of Yamamoto's baseball bats.

'_Whoa…_' Tsuna thought as he (or rather, he watched himself) casually opened the door and strode out, carrying Gokudera to his room. '_I never thought Giotto-san was this strong just looking at him…_'

"_**I could say unto you similar words**_,_** young successor of mine**_." Giotto's voice rang in his mind. "_**For a boy such as yourself Decimo**_,_** your strength is phenomenally disproportionate**_."

Tsuna couldn't help but feel humbled. He never saw himself as strong, though others would state otherwise. Perhaps it was just his nature, but he would always attribute his own strength to something else, perhaps an adrenalin rush or a side effect of the Dying Will Bullet that he would usually have lodged into his cranium. '_It's not my strength,_ _Giotto-san_…'

Another odd sensation washed over him as he had thought of that. The surrounding area had dimmed, as if night had fallen on them again, and there he saw, carrying the still unconscious Gokudera, was the Mafia Boss himself, looking rather out of character, lifting a boy over the shoulder in a pinstripe suit. Tsuna himself, however, noticed that his feet weren't touching the ground, and that he was floating, strangely following Giotto as he made his way closer to the unconscious Guardian's room.

"_**Though humility is a welcome characteristic for a Boss**_…" He began, casting Tsuna his calculating gaze, shining like the sun but foreboding like eerie mist. "_**Temperance of such would be required of you**_."

They had rounded a corner and came up to the top of a flight of stairs. '_Sorry…_' was all Tsuna could manage, looking away. His ethereal companion didn't speak, and started his descent down the stairwell. Finally, they had arrived at Gokudera's room, the fifth room on the northern part of the estate, as specified on the door's bronze plaque, _**N05**_.

Opening the door silently, Giotto made his way to the hastily undone four-poster bed and rested Gokudera onto it, making sure to keep the bloodied leg steady. The brunet watched on as Giotto took off a tasseled rope from one of the bedposts, looped it around an exposed beam on the four-poster's roof, and loosely tied it around Gokudera's leg, making a makeshift sling. After adjusting it to the right height, he turned to the bedside table and tapped a button on an expensive-looking intercom.

"_**Richiedo il personale medico per venire all'ala del nord**_,_** la stanza cinque**_." He stated in a commanding tone, though Tsuna heard his own voice come out from Giotto's mouth. What he said eluded the Boss-in-training, but he assumed it had to do with Gokudera.

It was probably the Hyper Intuition, but he was right. Like clockwork, footsteps sounded off from the hall. A moment passed, and two female Mafiosi in medical attire carrying two first aid kits had entered the room. They were fast, but respectfully quiet. _**"Lei **__**ci**__** ha **__**chiamato**__**, Don Vongola Decimo?"**_ One of them asked, bowing slightly.

"_**Sì**_._** Gokudera richiede che i suoi punti rifatti e veda a esso si riposa**_."

The two needed no other orders. They immediately set to work, bowing themselves past Giotto and huddling over Gokudera, who was just now beginning to stir. "_**It is time we take our leave**_…" Giotto told Tsuna as he silently glided over to the polished mahogany doors, eased it open and made his way out the room once again.

As soon as he had gotten out of the doorway, Tsuna's vision brightened back to normal, and the floating feeling had dissipated. He was back in control of his own body, and Giotto was walking beside him, hands folded regally under the long black cloak.

"What did you say to them…?" Tsuna blurted out, like an excited kid about a new toy.

"_**I had simply told them to redo Gokudera**_'_**s stitching and to ensure he regains his strength**_." Giotto replied, regally shrugging his shoulders, making his cloak flap elegantly around his feet, giving him the appearance of a king. When the brunet had nothing else to ask, Giotto walked on, returning to Tsuna's room with no other word.

For some odd reason, Tsuna lagged behind, gazing at Giotto in awe. He couldn't help it; from his ethereal standpoint back then, he almost saw himself instead of Giotto commanding those two nurses…and somehow, it looked so _cool_…it felt so _cool _to imagine himself like that: that regal grace in his every move, the Italian words rolling smoothly from his lips. Childish feelings of awe-inspired fantasy ruled his mind as it filled with images of being seated in a wingback chair like a throne, casually waving a hand and muttering something in Italian, dismissing a maid…

Wait, what? Tsuna blinked. That doesn't sound right…

The brunet rigorously shook his head and afterwards knocked on it with his fist. Did he just think that it was _cool _to be an Italian Mafia Boss?!

They continued to the staircase with no further conversation, both sets of eyes avoiding contact. The golden orbs kept straight on, whilst the amber ones gazed on the Mafia Boss' back, filled to the brim with the same awe and intrigue as before. '_He looks like me…_' Tsuna thought, narrowly avoiding Giotto's curious glance back at him. '_Yet he's everything I'm not: Strong…Confident…Regal…are we __**really**__ related to each other…?'_

They reached the staircase and ascended in silence, Giotto leading, and Tsuna absorbed in his own thoughts. A few moments after however, the silence was broken by the blond Boss once again. "_**Timoteo had told me much about you**_…" He began, gliding over the steps with ease, considering his nonexistent feet made not a sound on the hardwood staircase."…_**though I wish to inquire of you your history in person**_,_** Decimo**_."

'_Hm?_' Tsuna was caught off guard. What would Giotto _possibly _want to know? Hadn't the Ninth said everything that Giotto needed to know about his new successor…?

"_**Your Guardians intrigue me so, you see**_…" Giotto continued on, as if hearing Tsuna's frantic thoughts. "_**I yearn to know more**_,_** if my badgering is not a bother for you**_."

Well, there was Tsuna's answer. "No, not at all!" He replied, catching up to his ghostly companion up the steps. "I'll be happy to answer anything you ask."

"_**I humbly thank you, Decimo.**_" Giotto replied, before beginning his impromptu interview. "_**As I have met your Storm Guardian**_,_** would you please enlighten me as to the rest**_?"

They walked on, not heeding where they were headed. Tsuna told his ethereal conversant everything he knew about his friends and Guardians. From Yamamoto and Gokudera's constant bickering, to Hibari balancing between his greatest fighter and (in Tsuna's worst imagination) eventual assassin, to Mukuro's systematic flitting between friend and foe, to Lambo's immaturity; Giotto listened to it all, nodding every now and then, but always keeping a solemn silence.

While Tsuna was telling his stories, he couldn't help but notice the odd feeling radiating from the blond Boss. Though his face and features were passive and stoic, Tsuna felt that there was something off, a stray bit of emotion wafting off Giotto like a scent of perfume that never gets out of your mind. It was a gentle mix of joy and sadness, with hints of nostalgia and guilt in the golden nuggets that were his eyes.

Tsuna finished his story, trying to make sense of the lingering feeling that he was getting. For him not being able to interpret this feeling, Tsuna felt a little hurt and insulted at himself. If there was one thing that he was able to do well, even as '_Dame-Tsuna_', it was interpret people's emotions. He could tell the difference between someone joking about hurting him, threatening to hurt him but never going through with it, or in Reborn's case, literally hurting him within an inch of his life.

"_A-ano…Giotto-san_…" He stammered timidly, gulping silently. "Are you alright? You look as if you're…lamenting something…"

The strange melancholic feeling disappeared abruptly as Giotto's solemn eyes flooded with surprise. Gold orbs met Amber as the Blond Boss' facial mask broke into a genuine look of shock for the first time in four centuries. '_**How had he noticed?**_' He thought wildly. '_**No other Boss had been able to sense my innermost emotions…how has this boy done what no other has?**_'

There was silence in the lonely hall that they were in. Everything seemed to freeze in time while the two simply stared at each other, pondering why the other was reacting in such a way. "I-i-I'm s-s-sorry, _Giotto-san!_" Tsuna exclaimed frantically, taking a few steps back and bowing rapidly. "Forget I said anything!"

Like he did with Gokudera before, Giotto raised a hand to stop the bowing. His kingly composure had returned, and his face returned to its passive nature. "_**You should forgive **__**me**_,_** Decimo**_…" He started to say, giving off a bow of his own. The wind from an open window began to pick up, making Giotto's cloak drape over his bent form in an elegant sweeping motion, like a curtain falling on an act. "_**You had surprised me with your powerful sense of insight**_ _**and I had lost myself in shock**_."

He turned to the open window and gazed at the view outside. The mist covered mountains in the distance looked strangely yellow as of this moment, most definitely from the sun peeking over the horizon. There was but one cloud in the blue heavens, yet it seemed like was it was ready to disappear right at this moment. It was there and yet not there…like a natural illusion…

"_**The revelation about your Famiglia brings me back to bittersweet memories**_." Giotto explained finally, letting out a sigh laced with lament. "_**Bittersweet memories that I regret to this day**_..."

Tsuna shrunk back, unsure of what to make of his companion's abrupt mood swing. "I'm sorry, _Giotto-san._" He said again, not caring that he sounded redundant. Those two words were probably his catch phrase now, since they came out of his lips in every conceivable predicament he was in. "I didn't know it hurt that much."

"_**You needn**_'_**t apologize**_._** But I thank you for your information on your Guardians**_…_**perhaps maybe I should return the favor**_?"

"Return the favor?"

"_**I wish to tell you of my own inner circle of friends, who had stood by me long ago,**_" Giotto began, looking out the window again. "…_**Close-bonded allies who supported me from the beginning and came with me as I crossed the line to the other side of the law**_."

"Do you mean your Guardians…?"

Giotto simply nodded. He turned to the side and entered an open doorway, urging Tsuna to follow. Once inside, the Blond Boss came forward, placing the tip of his index finger in the center of Tsuna's forehead. A moment passed and without warning, the tip of Giotto's finger lit with Flame, sending a strange felling down Tsuna's spine.

The young brunet's vision darkened to black for a moment. After a seemingly long time, his confused brain began to stir. He tried to open his eyes but his vision was too blurred. He was lying on his back, but his head was spinning too badly for him to get to his feet.

"_**Are you alright**_,_** Decimo**_?" He heard Giotto ask from somewhere above him. Tsuna rolled to his side a bit, easing his brain to work better. When he finally felt relatively normal, he took Giotto's outstretched hand and was helped to his feet. Looking around, he noticed that he and Giotto were back in the white abyss where they first met.

"Why are we back here…?" The young boy asked his companion, who didn't reply immediately.

Giotto stepped forward and waved his hand in the air, commanding the white mists to part and reveal the water-like screen behind it. "_**I cannot simply tell you of my Guardians**_,_** therefore I opted to show you instead**_."

* * *

_Tsuna watched the screen slowly gain its picture. In it, Giotto was seated in front of a roaring fireplace, reading a very old and thick book. Next to him on the floor, playing (of all things) a __**Yamatogoto (1)**__ balanced on his lap, sat a man who looked roughly in his late teens or early twenties. He was bent over his instrument, so Tsuna couldn't see his face but he had lightly tanned skin that made him look distinctly Japanese. He was also dressed in Japanese garb, which consisted of a loose robe that musicians of feudal Japan used to wear when performing. The subtle tunes coming from the Yamatogoto seemed to calm both the roaring fire and the rain from outside, creating melodic tranquility with all the aforementioned elements._

"_Ah, what beautiful music you make with that strange instrument, Kenjirou..." The Giotto in the screen commented in an older form of Japanese as the performer, now known as Kenjirou, finished his piece. "You are such a talent with that!"_

"_You spoil me with your applause, Giotto-dono." Kenjirou replied, looking up to meet Giotto's gaze. His dark brown eyes, aside from affirming his Japanese origin, gave Tsuna the illusion that it was Yamamoto in the screen. "Though I regret I must sell my beloved instruments soon."_

_Giotto recoiled, taken by surprise at Kenjirou's decision. "What? Why? You're a master at any sort of instrument I have seen you play!"_

_Kenjirou's smile even made his resemblance to Yamamoto all that more obvious. "It is because I have mastered what I desire why I must sell them. I wish to take up swordsmanship you see…to aid you in your future endeavors."_

_Giotto's shock was still evident, but now it was mixed in with gratitude and a bit of guilt. "Kenjirou…"_

_Just then, the door opened and in strode (to Tsuna's surprise) five other people who also reminded Tsuna of his Guardians. The first one in was a blond-haired Hibari, complete to his perpetually narrowed clouded grey eyes, who threateningly walked up to the still seated Giotto and pulled him up out of his seat by the collar._

"_**Did I just hear correctly, Giotto?!"**__ He growled under his breath in Italian, oblivious to the outraged reactions of all the other people in the room. __**"Did you abandon your mission?" **_

_Tsuna found this odd. He knew that what the language he was hearing was Italian, yet he could understand every word. He looked away from the screen to cast a glance at the Giotto watching beside him, and deduced that it was the bit of knowledge Giotto had to let him understand._

_Another man reached forward and rested his hand on the blond Hibari's shoulder. __**"Quell thy raging temper, Alaude…"**__ He stated in a melodic tone. __**"His choice has been guided by the grace of God."**_

_Tsuna noticed that this other man, dressed in a black garb with a distinctive yellow stole of a Catholic Priest, bore the most uncanny of resemblances to Ryohei: True, his short-cropped hair was black, not silver and he didn't have the scar on his left temple, but he had the same looks, the same stance, and even the same bandage across the bridge of his nose. He probably had the same build as Ryohei under that loose garb. _

_Alaude, the blond Hibari, wheeled around and aimed a punch at the one who stopped him, but amazingly, the other man simply grabbed Alaude's fist, effortlessly launched Alaude airborne and lightly threw him into the plush red carpet. The Ryohei lookalike closed his eyes in prayer as soon as he let go of Alaude, folding up his hands swiftly. "I beg forgiveness of you, Oh Lord…" he began to mutter under his breath._

"_**Enough of your mantras, Randellov."**__ Giotto commanded, raising his hand to stop the priest from his frantic prayer mantra. __**"Alaude has all the right to take his anger out on me. But alas, I am not refraining from my decision."**_

_The other men in the room gazed on at the younger blond Giotto, each their faces laden with disbelief and doubt for their leader and dear friend._

_Alaude picked himself up from the carpeted floor, all the while not diverting his glare at Giotto.__** "It was his influence, wasn't it!?" **__He spat out with venom. __**"The **__**criminal**__**'s spawn drew you into this, didn't he!?!"**_

"_**Are you calling me, Alaude?" **__A brash, yet smooth voice called from the direction of the door. All eyes, even Alaude's, turned to the still-open doorway where even Tsuna was surprised at the person speaking. _

_Casually removing a small cigar from his thin lips and tucking it behind his ear, a Gokudera doppelganger unfolded his arms and confidently strode into the room, stopping only once he had gotten to Giotto's side. Everything about him was just like Tsuna's pyrotechnic friend, except for the fact that the entire left side of his face had a few dark burn scars that themselves looked like flames. __**"Believe me or not, I had no more knowledge of this than you all did. **__He declared out. __**"I may have gotten him started on that mission, but I didn't make him choose this…" **__Though contrary to his words, he was casting Giotto a look that bore the question, 'at least I hope not…'_

_The blond boss smiled back up at the Gokudera copy, giving him a look to soothe his worry. __**"Thank you, G." **__He replied before turning back to the others.__** "I chose this path well on my own, and I can understand if you wish for me to disappear from your lives…"**_

"_**I d-d-don't want t-t-that…" **__Stammered a soft voice from the background._

_A young man around the same age as Tsuna emerged from the shadows, childishly holding onto a handkerchief the same way a toddler would a security blanket. His messy yet curly black hair, wide and tearful eyes and lanky figure forcefully reminded Tsuna of a fifteen-year-old Lambo._

"_**Not you again…" **G groaned, running a hand through his silvery-white hair. **"I thought you weren't leaving your room…Lamperouge de Medici." **_

_The Lambo-like man grimaced at the emphasis on the name, covering his ears as if he was hearing foul obscurities. __**"Don't call me that! It's Lampo!" **_

"_Everyone stop!" Kenjirou finally burst out, walking right into the center of the verbal brawl. "Giotto-dono has every right to do what he wants…after what happened…"_

_Suddenly, all of the Guardians shushed up. Giotto bowed his head in silence, gliding past the crowd to gaze out the window into the rain outside._

_Kenjirou shrunk back and bowed his head shamefully. "I…I'm sorry I brought it up again. Forgive me, Giotto-dono…"_

_The blond Vongola did not reply, nor did he speak for a few moments. Though, when he did speak again, his voice was as stern and passive as the usual times Tsuna has heard him speak. __**"All of you. Answer me this: Knowing of what I am about to do, knowing of my choice and my enemy, will you still stand by my side…?"**_

_A collective silence befell the men in the room. G and Alaude stared at Giotto's back stoically with arms crossed, Randellov and Kenjirou hid their hands in their sleeves, and Lampo resigned himself to fiddling with his handkerchief._

_Tsuna leaned in closer to the window. Even from his position, he could sense something building within the room. Resolve like he had never sensed built up in that room as if it was fit to burst. Then one by one, the members of Giotto's guardians took one dramatic step towards their Boss, each with confident expressions on their faces. Then, in one voice, they each replied to Giotto the same answer._

"_**We'll follow wherever you decide to go, Don Giotto Vongola."**_

* * *

(1) Yamatogoto: A traditional Japanese string instrument.

**If you wish to know why it took me so long, I was simply waiting for the manga to reveal more about Giotto's Famiglia for me to be accurate. Also, I have strived to make this chapter longer than its predecessor, which is little over seven thousand words…this one is more than eight thousand, give or take the heading and footnotes.**

**Please take note that with my stories:**

**The longer you have to wait, the better I strive to make the chapter I'm writing at that moment.**


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